120008 VO Literatures in English (2010S)

This lecture will be concerned with the first professional women writers, the problems they encountered, the reception they received, and, of course, the work they produced. The time covered will be the Restoration period and the 18th century, and we will concentrate on drama and prose. Aphra Behn is nowadays regarded not only as the first professional woman dramatist, who opened the door of a theatrical career to future generations of women, but also as the 'mother' of the English novel. Her successors had to position themselves vis a vis her controversial model and had to negotiate a space for themselves at a time when drama came under increasing moral pressure, but when the success of the new genre of the novel opened new possibilities for writers.