Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

Announcements, Abo Editors

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Review Of Women, Performance, And The Material Of Memory: The Archival Tourist, 1780-1915, By Laura Engel, Leslie Ritchie

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Review Of Eighteenth-Century Women’S Writing And The Methodist Media Revolution, By Andrew O. Winckles, Rebecca Nesvet

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Future Of Feminist Eighteenth-Century Scholarship: Beyond Recovery, Edited By Robin Runia, Erin M. Goss

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Review of Robin Rubia, ed., The Future of Feminist Eighteenth-Century Scholarship: Beyond Recovery (Routledge, 2018)

Writing With Aphra: Solidarity, Generosity, And Fight Club Rules Beyond Summer 2020, Kirsten T. Saxton, Bethany E. Qualls

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A short piece in praise of the summer Write With Aphra program for pandemic support of women and non binary writers and a discussion of how the program is useful beyond its original parameters

Absent Objects, Freya Purcell

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Observations on studying during the Global Pandemic in the summer of 2020, access to archives. Considering the relationship between physical objects and the digital world in studying Design History.

Covid Diary: Scholarship And Gardening, Jessica Munns

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Nothing Is Normal And Yet Normalcy Is The Demand, Crystal L. Matey

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The Field: Notes From Lockdown, Sofia Prado Huggins, Susannah B. Sanford

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Feminist Scholarly Communities Have Been A Lifeline During The Pandemic, Karen Griscom

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

I teach writing and literature at a community college, and I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate. Because I balance full-time teaching and graduate research, I am accustomed to the intensity of a heavy workload. Still, during this past year, my home and work responsibilities have multiplied and with that so has my anxiety. Stress and lack of time have made it challenging to write and research. However, two feminist organizations have helped me cope and remain hopeful about my scholarship.

Summary Remarks On Conversations About “Researching, Reading And Writing During The Pandemic”, Kate Ozment, Mona Narain

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Summary remarks on the Spring 2021 issue that includes Conversation essays by participants in the ABO summer 2020 writing camp #WriteWithAphra. The participants describe their experience of reading, researching, and writing during the pandemic.

A New Poem By Anna Letitia Barbauld, Scott Krawczyk, William Mccarthy

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This short discovery article presents information pertaining to a previously unknown poem of four lines by Anna Letitia Barbauld. The poem is housed at Duke University in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Ardelia, Orinda, And . . . Ke$Ha: Teaching #Me Too And The Gendered Sphere Of Poetry, Andrew Black

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This article addresses the way in which the teaching of Anne Finch and Katherine Philips can be enhanced with classroom discussion of a surprising modern parallel: the sometimes coercive artistic and personal constraints placed on contemporary female pop artists by male producers. Focusing on Kesha, my class compares her recent struggles for autonomy and justice to the peculiar creative conditions which Anne Finch and Katherine Philips had to endure, inviting students to use their popular culture knowledge to gain a more nuanced insight into the historical gendering of creative cultures.

Teaching Eighteenth-Century English Coercion, Seduction, And Consent In Twenty-First Century India: Eliza Haywood’S Love In Excess, Sumi Bora

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Classroom teaching informed by the #MeToo movement is widespread and diverse. This paper evolves from classroom discussion with Third Semester English Major students at Lokanayak Omeo Kumar Das College, Dhekiajuli, Assam, India. The paper engages itself with #MeToo Movement and scrutinizes the depiction of seduction in Eliza Haywood’s novel Love in Excess. The paper records the students’ connections between Haywood and their own desire to build consciousness among the marginalized section of women so that they voice issues of harassment in any form.

"Side By Side With A Ruinous, Ever-Present Past": Trauma-Informed Teaching And The Eighteenth Century, Clarissa, And Fantomina, Kate Parker, Bryan M. Kopp, Lindsay Steiner

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This article explores the need for and applications of trauma-informed teaching in eighteenth-century studies, particularly around representations of sexual trauma (rape) and consent. The prevalence of trauma guarantees its presence in our classrooms, even and especially in its absences. As the field of eighteenth-century studies continues to reframe its white, Eurocentric, male-dominated past through more intentionally inclusive research and teaching methods, particularly those that explore the intersections of eighteenth-century studies and social justice approaches to education, the presence of trauma in our classrooms will become only more significant. Keeping in mind those students of marginalized identities who are most likely …

Customary Law And The Revival Of Natural Rights Reformism In Amelia Opie's Adeline Mowbray, Mark Zunac

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This essay investigates the role of natural law within the philosophical debates in 1790s Britain over the origins and applicability of citizens' rights, an issue amplified by memories of the French Revolution. It marks Amelia Opie’s 1805 novel Adeline Mowbray as representative of a counterrevolutionary faction focused extensively on the rights of citizens, yet fully distinct from the theoretically grounded cosmopolitan vision of both the French Jacobins and their radical British counterparts. The novel serves as evidence that the British counterrevolution was not intrinsically opposed to reform, and that reform itself was not incompatible with moral duty and social good …

Looking Beyond The Enlightenment Mother-Teacher: Anna Letitia Barbauld And The Eighteenth-Century Maternal Ideal, Kathryn J. Ready

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Based on her popular prose writing for children, liberal Dissenter Anna Letitia Barbauld has been cited as a prominent example of the Enlightenment mother-teacher associated with the influence of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. However, close reading of her poetry reveals a complex maternal ideal in operation that was in part that of the Enlightenment mother-teacher, in part a modified form of republican motherhood, a strategic composite drawn, on the one hand, from classical republican discourse, which promoted the woman’s role in fostering patriotism and liberty, and, on the other, from contemporary defences of commerce, which highlighted women’s civilizing and …

The Boy In The Text: Mary Barber, Her Son, And Children's Poetry In Poems On Several Occasions, Chantel M. Lavoie

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

The Boy in the Text: Mary Barber, Her Son, and Children’s Poetry in Poems on Several Occasions

This paper reconsiders the work of Dublin poet Mary Barber, whose collection of poems appeared in 1733/34. There she acknowledges the assistance of Jonathan Swift, and frames her poetry as a pedagogical aid to her children’s education—particularly that of her eldest son, Constantine. Barber’s relationship with Swift has received much critical attention, as has her focus on her own motherhood—sometimes in critiques that suggest both of these hampered the quality and scope of her work. This paper asks readers to look at her …

Editors' Thanks To Dr. Linda Troost, Editor Ecw, Mona Narain

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

"You Taught Me Language:" Using Shakespeare To Teach English To Speakers Of Other Languages, Sarah Blake

Honors Projects

This thesis explores how to use Shakespeare effectively in English language education. By considering cultural backgrounds and different translations, ESOL educators can assess what areas students need more guidance in, and how Shakespearean texts can help scaffold those areas. These texts can be used to teach grammar and mechanics as well as literary devices. The most effective teaching methods are also explored: examples of appropriate visuals, classroom activities, and discussion topics are given.

A Changing Narrative For Englishwomen's Authorship During The Early Modern Period, Erin Kruger

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis is a look into women’s authorship in the English Early Modern period, specifically looking at the time period from 1543 until 1621. The main writers of focus are Catherine Parr, Mary Sidney, Lady Mary Wroth, and Aemilia Lanyer, with supplemental texts from the period used to frame the thesis argument. Modern research on this era is also used to supplement the work. Over the course of the period, the innovation of women’s authorship led to two primary changes in the nature of women’s authorship: more inclusive women’s authorship and the expansion of topics that women wrote on. These …

Review Of Jason Farr's Novel Bodies: Disability And Sexuality In Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Nowell Marshall

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Review of Jason Farr's Novel Bodies: Disability and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century British Literature

Review Of Memoirs Of A Woman Of Pleasure By John Cleland, Edited By Richard Terry And Helen Williams, Bethany E. Qualls

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland, edited by Richard Terry and Helen Williams, by Bethany E. Qualls.

Beyond Victims & Villains: Teaching Cleland With Haywood & Behn, Christopher Nagle

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This essay explores strategies for teaching Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill) in the introductory literature classroom, and why it might be especially valuable to do so at a time when issues surrounding sexual violence, rape culture, and the politics of consent continue to be prominent inside and outside the college classroom.

“Yield It Up Cheerfully”: Teaching Consent, Violence, And Coercion In Samuel Richardson’S Pamela, Leah Grisham

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Drawn from the author’s experience teaching Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela during the #Metoo movement, this essay argues that bringing current discourses of consent and gender-based violence into conversation with the novel deepens students’ engagement with and interest in the eighteenth century. While students identify specters of Pamela and Mr. B’s relationship in their own worlds, the novel is also a helpful tool in revealing the many ways in which consent can be coerced.

A Novel Moment For #Writewithaphra, Laura Runge, Tonya Howe

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Introduction to the Fall 2020 issue that describes our summer 2020 writing camp #WriteWithAphra.

"And Gladly Wolde He Lerne": Facilitating Discussion Based Learning About Medieval And Regency Literature Through Interactive Technologies, Emma Vallandingham

Honors Projects

A series of reading guides for Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and Frankenstein, that utilize interactive technologies to facilitate student engagement with and discussion of the texts. Each reading guide consists of an overview of the text, relevant historical context, and reading and discussion questions for students to answer. Some reading guides also have corresponding answer guides that provides sample answers as well as hints and tips for answering the questions.

A Review Of Joanna Wharton, Material Enlightenment: Women Writers And The Science Of The Mind, 1770–1830, Kandice Sharren

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A Review of Joanna Wharton, Material Enlightenment: Women Writers and the Science of the Mind, 1770–1830, by Kandice Sharren

Review Of Women’S Periodicals And Print Culture In Britain, 1690–1820s: The Long Eighteenth Century, Lisa Maruca

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Review of Women’s Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain

Review Of Deborah Boyle, The Well-Ordered Universe The Philosophy Of Margaret Cavendish, Dustin D. Stewart

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Deborah Boyle's book The Well-Ordered Universe (2018), by Dustin D. Stewart.