Identity politics in the works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
| dc.contributor.author | Creed, Carolyn Joy | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2007-05-18T19:59:15Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2007-05-18T19:59:15Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1998-08-01T00:00:00Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | English | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | The thesis defines Lady Mary's evolving "I am" statement from its first appearance in juvenilia to its last, novel-based. Using feminist and new historicist methods, the study penetrates a multi-voiced epistolary self to her imaginary works' personae. The early chapters are arranged in the following order. Chapter 1 assesses the proto-feminist standing claimed for Lady Mary, a tentative positioning against traditional and male-authorized aspects of her identity. Chapter 2 locates early models, Virgilian or Scuderian, by imitation of which Lady Mary gains selfhood. Experiments with forms and poses lead to the woman writer's identity. Chapter 3 declares the Language of Flowers an emblematizing of identity. The self-image in the Turkish Embassy Letters admits secret codes and adopts pro-Turkish attitudes. Chapter 4 examines Lady Mary's right to the "Court Wit" title given to Rochester or Gay. The 'Court Eclogs' and the answer poems to Pope's 'Dunciad' expose a shifting literary figure. The later chapters demonstrate mature selfhood. Chapter 5 treats the marriage comedy, 'Simplicity', as a role-playing matrix for Lady Mary as mother/daughter, then compares her letters to Lady Bute with other parent-child discourses. Chapter 6 renders the physical identity, the body-image of the intellectual: Lady Mary's frequent portrayals, disguised, enhanced or "barefaced," inform the chapter. Chapter 7 concludes by aligning the quixotic Lady Mary with other Quixotes including her own Princess Docile, to profile the ultimately majestic figure of the author herself. | en_US |
| dc.format.extent | 19820281 bytes | |
| dc.format.extent | 184 bytes | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.format.mimetype | text/plain | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/1802 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.title | Identity politics in the works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu | en_US |
| dc.type | doctoral thesis | en_US |