Performing Authorship in Eighteenth-Century English Periodicals

305 Pages·2012·2.47 MB·English

by  Manushag N. Powell

Performing Authorship
in Eighteenth-Century
English Periodicals
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T R A N S I T S :
LITERATURE, THOUGHT & CULTURE
Series Editor
Greg Clingham
Bucknell University
Transits is the next horizon. Th e series of books, essays, and monographs aims to extend recent
achievements in eighteenth-century studies, and to publish work on any aspects of the litera-
ture, thought, and culture of the years 1650–1850. Without ideological or methodological
restrictions, Transits seeks to provide transformative readings of the literary, cultural, and his-
torical interconnections between Britain, Europe, the Far East, Oceania, and the Americas in
the long eighteenth century, and as they extend down to present time. In addition to literature
and history, such “global” perspectives might entail considerations of time, space, nature, eco-
nomics, politics, environment, and material culture, and might necessitate the development
of new modes of critical imagination, which we welcome. But the series does not thereby
repudiate the local and the national for original new work on particular writers and readers in
particular places in time continues to be the bedrock of the discipline.
Titles in the Series
Figures of Memory: From the Muses to Eighteenth-Century British Aesthetics
Zsolt Komáromy
Horace Walpole’s Letters: Masculinity and Friendship in the Eighteenth Century
George E. Haggerty
Th omas Sheridan’s Career and Infl uence: An Actor in Earnest
Conrad Brunström
Th e Self as Muse: Narcissism and Creativity in the German Imagination 1750–1830
Alexander Mathäs
Tobias Smollett in the Enlightenment: Travels through France, Italy, and Scotland
Richard J. Jones
Modern Antiques: Th e Material Past in England, 1660–1780
Barrett Kalter
A Race of Female Patriots: Women and Public Spirit on the British Stage, 1688–1745
Brett D. Wilson
Th e Family, Marriage, and Radicalism in British Women’s Novels of the 1790s:
Public Aff ection and Private Affl iction
Jennifer Golightly
Feminism and the Politics of Travel After the Enlightenment
Yaël Schlick
John Galt: Observations and Conjectures on Literature, History, and Society
Regina Hewitt
Performing Authorship in Eighteenth-Century English Periodicals
Manushag N. Powell
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T R A N S I T S
Performing Authorship
in Eighteenth-Century
English Periodicals
M A N U S H A G N . P O W E L L
L E W I S B U R G
B U C K N E L L U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
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Published by Bucknell University Press
Co-published with Th e Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
10 Th ornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2012 by Manushag N. Powell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Powell, Manushag N.
Performing authorship in eighteenth-century English periodicals /
Manushag N. Powell.
p. cm.—(Transits: Literature, thought & culture ; 11)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61148-416-8 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-61148-417-5
(electronic)
1. English periodicals—History—18th century. 2. English prose literature—
18th century—History and criticism. 3. Periodicals—Publishing—Great Britain—
History—18th century. I. Title.

PN5116.P69 2012
828'.509—dc23 2012012336
™
Th e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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To the memory of James Wesley Powell
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CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Author and Eidolon 13
2 Early Periodical Cross-Dressing 49
3 Performance, Masculinity, and Paper Wars 85
4 Femininity and the Periodical 131
5 No Animal in Nature so Mortal as an Author, or, Death
and the Eidolon 193
Notes 235
Bibliography 263
Index 279
About the Author 291
[ vii ]
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LIST OF FIGURES
Table
1.1 Literary Bill of Mortality 21
Figures
1.1 Headpiece from the Tea-Table 44
2.1 Headpiece from the Female Tatler 69
3.1 A Night Scene at Ranelagh of Wednesday
6th of May 1752 95
3.2 Le Malade Imaginaire, or the Consultation 110
4.1 Th e Assembly of Old Maids 141
4.2 Th e Assembly of Old Batchelors 141
4.3 Th e Old Maids Occasional Concert 142
4.4 Old Maids at a Cat’s Funeral 166
5.1 “Th e Art and Mystery of Printing
Emblematically Displayed” 203
[ ix ]
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