Customer Reviews

Femininity and 18th Century Culture - By: Mr. M. A. Howell-Meri, 28 Apr 2008
"In a period of major political & economic change, definitions of `women' & `femininity' played a crucial partin a wider redefinition of social categoris & social roles, & the anthology's five sections represent significant areas within this debate about women's nature & status." (8) Jones' fascinating anthology sheds new light on my own research of 18th century play production & should be embraced by everyone even vaguely interestedin 18th century literature. When describing Wollstonecraft's writing as "feminist radicalism" (9) she supports the cotroversial view that "Feminism" existed as a movementin the 18th century centuries before it gained its formal name. Jones intelligently shows how 18th century culture seriously valued femininity across both genders & remained clearly acceptable of it. She cites primary source evidencein support of her thesis - the firstin this area - which has since been taken up by other scholars. It is very surprising that other fields - especially theatre history - have not embraced Jones's important thesis because the plays most frequently performed during the eighteenth cetury value feminine views, despite the fact that farces like Garrick's hit comedy "Missin her Teens" create characters like Fribble (played by Garrick himself) for spectator ridicule. Mark Howell-Meri