Gender and Language in British Literary Criticism, 16601790 [Paperback]

An analysis of the way in which gendered language was used in eighteenth-century literary criticism.During the eighteenth century British critics believed that masculine values represented the best literature while feminine terms signified less important works or authors. Laura Runge argues that an understanding of the language of eighteenth-century criticism requires careful analysis of the gendered language of the era. Her exploration of why, for example, the heroic and the sublime were seen as masculine modes while the novel was viewed as a feminine genre addresses issues central to eighteenth-century studies and still relevant today.During the eighteenth century British critics believed that masculine values represented the best literature while feminine terms signified less important works or authors. Laura Runge argues that an understanding of the language of eighteenth-century criticism requires careful analysis of the gendered language of the era. Her exploration of why, for example, the heroic and the sublime were seen as masculine modes while the novel was viewed as a feminine genre addresses issues central to eighteenth-century studies and still relevant today.During the eighteenth century British critics believed that masculine values represented the best literature while feminine terms signified less important works or authors. Laura Runge argues that an understanding of the language of eighteenth-century criticism requires careful analysis of the gendered language of the era. Her exploration of why, for example, the heroic and the sublime were seen as masculine modes while the novel was viewed as a feminine genre addresses issues central to eighteenth-century studies that are still relevant today.1. Many words on Mount Parnassus; 2. Dryden's gendered balance and the Augustan ideal; 3. Paternity and regulation in the feminine novel; 4. Aristotle's sisters: Behn, Lennox, Fielding and Reeve; 5. Returning to the beautiful; Polemical postscript; Bibliographl“!