Marriage and Masculinity in the Later Fiction of Eliza Haywood
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Even though texts created by women were occasionally recognized by the public, it was not until Aphra Behn’s career that women in England were known to make a living by the pen. Following the example of her successful predecessor, Eliza Haywood managed to establish herself as a skilled professional on the otherwise male-dominated literary scene and was even among the top bestselling writers of her era. Although she was marginalized and ridiculed by her contemporaries for embracing the low genre of amatory fiction, recent research stresses her contribution in shaping the genre of the novel, which is often associated with her male rivals. As prose fiction gained importance and formed a powerful medium of influence, it became an important source of social and political commentary. Since Haywood’s prolific writings were widely read by people across social classes, her views came to the attention of a broad readership, and therefore helped to form new ideas of gender roles. This paper explores Haywood’s portrayals of masculinity in the context of the ongoing debate about desirable masculine models and compares her work with that of her more well-known contemporaries, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson. By briefly examining the narrative strategies in her rebellious early novels, Love in Excess (1719) and Idalia (1723), and then focusing on her later novels of marriage, The Fortunate Foundlings (1744) and The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751), the paper maps how Haywood adapted to the changing sensibilities of her audiences and offers a more balanced insight into the discussion on masculinity around the middle of the century. |