The Awkward Age (Annotated - Includes Essay and Biography)

Eagle, Dorothy, and Hilary Carnell, comp. Eagle and Meic Stephens. A Critical Reference Guide. Women Playwrights in England, Ireland, and Scotland, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Dictionary of Literary Biography Companion to Scottish Literature. The Macmillan Companion to Scottish Literature. Mainstream Companion to Scottish Literature. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee.

The Continuum Dictionary of Women's Biography. A Handbook of English Literature. Barnes and Noble, Webster's New Biographical Dictionary. Prentice Hall Guide to English Literature. In this section, I have included reviews for books which contain at least a full chapter about Baillie. In addition, I have only included reviews which specifically mention Baillie.

For example, Ellen Donkin's Getting into the Act has several more reviews than those listed, but the reviews not listed do not consider Donkin's treatment of Baillie. Briefly suggests that Baillie's strong and firm handwriting "lacks the delicate feebleness of a lady's writing. Joanna Baillie's Plays on the Passions. Provides individual commentary on each of the Plays on the Passions , with especial attention to De Monfort as "probably the best" of the thirteen.

Includes brief introductory sections on Baillie's life and her dramatic theory, and concludes with a critical estimate of the place A Series of Plays occupies in English literature. Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Commends Kemble's acting, but criticizes the conflict between De Monfort and Rezenvelt as too slight for serious drama.

Scottish Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillan. Briefly considers Baillie's poetry, and states that, although contemporaries overrated her poetry, they believed that Baillie produced a "moral influence" on literature. English Plays of the Nineteenth Century. Portrays Baillie as representative of Gothic melodrama. Asserts that Baillie's verse often deteriorates into "leisurely poetry for its own sake" and that De Monfort and Henriquez display the characteristic emotional excesses of Romantic theatre.

Prefaces to English Nineteenth-Century Theatre. Examines the biographical and literary connections between Baillie and Byron, and argues that their literary relationship explains Byron's "attitudes towards the roles of gender and power in female literary production. Argues that although Baillie's Introductory Discourse shares similarities with William Wordsworth's Preface of , Baillie avoids Wordsworth's "masculinist focus on the introspective process of an individual poet. Shows that Baillie focuses on connecting with her audience while Wordsworth emphasizes the poet's independent and isolated mind.

Drawing on the theories of Carol Gilligan and Nancy Chodorow, argues that this contrast derives from the gender difference between the two authors. U of Pennsylvania P, Explores early nineteenth-century British women writers' representations of themselves, of other women, and their theories on the theatrical representation of women to show the influence contemporary gender expectations produced on dramatic practice. Uses Baillie as a representative female theatre theorist to demonstrate "the problems women theorists encounter when moving from 'the closet' to engage critics in public space.

States that Baillie's concern with depicting scenes from the closet connects with her desire to create intimate contact with the audience, her participation in and depiction of private theatricals, and her wish to alter theatre construction. Argues that Basil explores a woman's participation in both "the informal stage of private life and the public arena of formal theatres. Asserts that Basil 's Victoria attempts "to experiment with the performance of femininity" in private and public spaces and that Basil himself can neither negotiate nor differentiate the public and private arenas.

Appears in a revised version as part of chapter four in Closet Stages. Joanna Baillie's Prefaces to the Plays on the Passions. British Women Writers, Carol Shiner Wilson and Joel Haefner. Asserts that Baillie's focus on "the potentiality of 'the closet'" anticipates modern feminist theatre. Following a survey of the theatre theories of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Russell Mitford, argues that Baillie attempts to create "a drama that actually dramatizes scenes from a character's closet," and hopes to foreground the domestic sphere and the feminine experience.

Shows that Baillie's theatrical preferences, such as smaller stages, less over-emotive acting, and better lighting share affinities with contemporary feminist and lesbian theatre, for these conditions help create a more personal and intimate environment. Further states that both Baillie and contemporary feminist and lesbian writers make women's lives the center of their dramas. Appears in a revised version as chapter three of Closet Stages. Passion and 'the Plain Order of Things.

Behrendt and Harriet Kramer Linkin. Approaches to Teaching World Literature. Claims that like her dramas, Baillie's poems focus on the domestic closet as a mirror of societal conflicts. States that "Lines to a Teapot" concerns both the slave trade and the marriage market. Maintains that emphasizing the conflict inherent in domestic life, as Baillie does, helps students better understand the relationship between their educations and their lives.

Feldman and Theresa M. UP of New England, Argues that through the characters of Jane De Monfort and De Monfort, respectively, Baillie sets the Neoclassic acting style, here termed "statuesque stasis," against German Romanticism's "emotive" technique. Claims that De Monfort represents an anti-social force because he wishes to disrupt the interactions of polite society, which Baillie portrays most clearly through Jane De Monfort and Rezenvelt.

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States that Jane's and De Monfort's struggle to negotiate complex human relationships and gender roles mirrors Baillie's artistic efforts to create a drama of the private domestic realm also appropriate for the public stage. Places The Tryal in the context of privately produced plays, and states that such productions allowed women to participate in the theatre as directors and stage managers.

Claims that Agnes, by directing the private play within The Tryal , attempts "to dramatize domestic space" as a way "to control the representation of women's social reality. Appears in a revised version as chapter five of Closet Stages. Places Baillie among the foremost nineteenth-century Scottish dramatists, but argues that Baillie's plays suffer from an "awkward, overblown, and anglicized poetic style, which is rarely fitted to the subject. States that although De Monfort is pleasurable to read, the dramatic efforts of Sarah Siddons, John Philip Kemble, and Edmund Kean could not rescue the play from theatrical failure.

Attributes Baillie's lack of success in production to her insufficient practical theatre experience. Briefly describes the sets of the original production, and notes the author's own positive reaction to Kean's revival.

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Praises Baillie's genius as "inferior to no individual['s]" of the time, and credits Baillie's Introductory Discourse with reforming and saving poetics and drama from the "dull monotony" of contemporary conventions. Defends Baillie's preference for character and mental action over plot as well as her design to center a play around a single passion. In the Shadows of Romance: In the fifth chapter, briefly considers A Series of Plays as the nineteenth century's "most concerted attempt to ground tragedy in psychology.

Considers Orra and De Monfort. Drawing on records of Sarah Siddons' portrayal of Jane De Monfort, argues that Baillie critiques Gothic conventions and gender stereotypes. Asserts that the tensions between Jane and the male characters of De Monfort frustrate audience expectations for an emotive yet passive woman. Places Baillie within the Gothic genre while showing how she works against the restrictive roles for women within that genre. Asserts that a masculine bias in Romantic studies has caused the marginalization of women writers such as Anna Barbauld and Charlotte Smith.

Uses Baillie as a representative example of a highly published woman writer now largely forgotten by the academic community. Argues that of all texts, Baillie's A Series of Plays "exerted the most direct practical and theoretical force" on Romantic drama. Romanticism On the Net 12 November Getting into the Act: Women Playwrights in London, - In the final chapter, traces reasons for Baillie's literary rise and subsequent decline. Argues that Baillie's anonymous publication—which concealed her sex—played a large role in her initial popularity.

Asserts that Richard Sheridan's reluctance to stage Baillie's plays, Baillie's consistent refusal to attend rehearsals, and male critics' bias against women playwrights all contributed to her fall from public favor. Dramatic Character in the English Romantic Age. In a chapter on "Romantic Heroism," portrays Baillie as a dramatic reformer who anticipates modern theatrical practice. Drawing on examples from De Monfort , argues that by presenting evil passion as an aspect of the soul rather than as a facet of fate, Baillie "effected.

Theatre in the Age of Kean. Drama and Theatre Studies. Rowan and Littlefield, States that, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Baillie holds the view that a connection exists between human nature and action. Claims that Baillie's dramaturgy, as expressed in the Introductory Discourse , remains "essentially untheatrical" as evidenced by the limited production of her plays. Asserts that De Monfort marks a moment of innovation for nineteenth-century Gothic drama because in the play, Baillie takes special care to develop a complex psychology for the title character.

Gothic Drama from Walpole to Shelley. University of California Publications U of California P, In the eleventh chapter, calls for a revaluation of Baillie's plays. Argues that Baillie is quintessentially Gothic because she crowds most of her plays with dark and gloomy castle and convent settings, secret passageways, ruins, tolling bells, and remorseful and emotional protagonists. Asserts that in Orra , the title character's fear and eventual madness result from the combined effects of these Gothic elements. English Romantic Drama, States that like Coleridge and Wordsworth, Baillie hopes to create an artistic drama well-suited to the contemporary stage.

In a short section of a chapter on "Heroic Heroines," traces Baillie's influence on Lord Byron's drama. States that Baillie and Lord Byron share ideas on feminine nurturing and that both emphasize sibling relationships. Considers De Monfort and Constantine Paleologus. States that Baillie's realistic women characters mark her style as feminine.

Discusses De Monfort and its stage failure.

Joanna Baillie, Germany, and the Gothic Drama. Argues that Baillie attempts to combine spectacle and psychology, thus negotiating the boundary between public popularity and critical approval. Asserts that the creation of characters haunted by nothing "other than their own minds" allows Baillie to use Gothic tropes while directing audience attention away from spectacle and towards psychological perception of the supernatural. Lewis' Castle Spectre and August von Kotzebue's plays to demonstrate nineteenth-century critical bias against German conventions. Claims that in Ethwald , Baillie distances herself from such influences by "creating a series of dualisms.

Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration in to In volume seven, summarizes De Monfort and praises its "exquisitely beautiful language. Criticizes Baillie's lack of practical knowledge of the stage, and repeatedly censures her "disgusting" tendency to allow characters to exit a scene only to enter the next without allowance for the passage of time.

In a brief passage, surveys Baillie's career. Also suggests that Baillie helped reform the theatre by directing it toward moral didacticism. A Ballad," and Ahalya Baee to show how Baillie "negotiates the boundaries of space allotted to femininity.

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Maintains that Ahalya Baee challenges the notion of separate gender spheres put forth by the earlier two poems. Offers a brief biographical essay with some critical evaluation. Claims Baillie's best attribute is her ability to depict the effects passions have on an individual's psyche. The Life of Edmund Kean. Considers Kean's production of De Monfort and attributes its failure to the unsuitability of Baillie's plays for the stage. Notes Baillie's willingness to incorporate Kean's suggestions for revisions and her satisfaction with Kean's performance in the new version. Also highly praises Kean's interpretation of De Monfort.

Lectures on the English Poets. Taylor and Hessey, Briefly criticizes Baillie's efforts to depict one passion per play as "heresies of dramatic art. Argues that Baillie's emphasis on the passions arises from the "sympathy and sentimentality" of nineteenth-century business and consumer practices. Claims that Baillie's concern with physical appearance connects to a nineteenth-century focus on physiognomy. States that Baillie's artistic program "promotes a modern consumerist form of desire" which emphasizes both procurement and ownership of art objects.

Joanna Baillie and Her Circle, Camden Historical Society, Belles Lettres in English. Provides a vivid description of Baillie's birthplace, Bothwell, Scotland, noting its geography and culture. Briefly considers Baillie as a dramatic genius whose plays are "imagined to be more suitable for the closet than the stage. Asserts that De Monfort is a work of genius, but criticizes its lack of substantial reason for the title character's hatred for Rezenvelt.

Argues that Baillie's plays fail because the dramatist places depicting a passion and stating a moral message above developing character and plot. Maintains that this pattern results in a one-dimensional protagonist, De Monfort, while Rezenvelt appears more real because he need not be ruled by one passion alone. However, contends that De Monfort succeeds because Baillie invests the title character with pride as his tragic flaw. Records of the New York Stage from to Includes cast lists for both the April 13, American premier of De Monfort and an revival.

Provides an overview and general appreciation of Baillie's life and career. Lauds the "accuracy of her analysis of passion" and her ability to sustain a play based on a single emotion. Claims that Baillie's lack of theatrical success occurred because the plays were "not intended for the stage. Shows how Baillie may be used in a course on Romanticism and gender. Places Baillie with other women writers—such as Maria Edgeworth, Catharine Macaulay, and Felicia Hemans—who attempt to create an "emotional interiority" distinct from masculine history.

Shows that emotion can, for Baillie, manifest itself in communal expressions of feeling, as at the end of De Monfort. Discusses George Thomson's efforts to collect British lyric poems, and notes Baillie's refusal to revise "The Maid of Llanwellyn" for one of his collections. A Festschrift in Honor of Allan H. The Closet Drama of the Romantic Revival. Salzburg Studies in English Literature. Poetic Drama and Poetic Theory In a brief section on Baillie, contends that Baillie's compartmentalization of the passions, stereotypical plots, and weak characterizations result in dramatic failure.

Suggests that the Miscellaneous Plays are her most successful works due to their variations in plot and character, and asserts that Baillie's strongest attributes are her depictions of crowd scenes and her poetic language. Asserts that songs allow socially refined women—like Baillie—"to grasp the physical immediacy" of traditional ballads. States that Baillie's "Hooly and Fairly" breaks with tradition by presenting a sarcastic and derisive view of marriage. Romantic Women Literary Critics.

Asserts that Baillie, Anna Barbauld, Mary Wollstonecraft and other women writers upheld coherent aesthetic theories opposed to those advanced by their male contemporaries. Demonstrates that women espoused "the workings of a rational mind," a fluid self immersed in a social context, and reform through communal action. States that the Plays on the Passions show the growth of feelings within a social context.

This growth creates a connection between characters and audience which culminates in the moral instruction of the latter. Asserts that this, a conflict of the domestic sphere, directly influences the public sphere. Further argues that Baillie characterizes the "masculine public sphere" as dominated by self-destructive egotism and pride while she portrays the feminine counter-public sphere with a basis in domestic action and nurturing affection. In a short essay on Baillie, states that her tragedies are well-constructed and provide a strong sense of closure.

Contends that Baillie's comedies on the passions provide better dramatic entertainment and display Baillie's sharp wit, as in the "exceeding sweetness" of The Tryal 's heroines. Believes Baillie would have more readers if her comedies received more emphasis than her tragedies.

Discusses De Monfort and The Tryal. Praises Baillie's lyric power, and states that her best work is "The Chough and Crow" passage from Orra. As did Wordsworth, praises Baillie as "the very pattern" of a distinguished woman and author. Lauds the strength of Baillie's plays, especially her female characters. Also admires Baillie's lyric abilities, and reprints several poems. Talks in a Library with Laurence Hutton. Recounts the brief story of Hutton's visit to Hampstead to find Baillie's house and grave.

States that Hutton questioned two local inhabitants for information: In a chapter entitled "The Legitimate Drama," asserts that although Baillie's plays suffer from lapses in coherent plot construction and from too heavy a reliance on Elizabethan diction, her consistent development of one central emotion makes her plays "landmarks. A History of English Drama, Briefly considers the first volume of A Series of Plays , citing Baillie's focus on passion over character, her "tendency. The Literary Associations of Hampstead: Affirms that Baillie's most revolutionary technique is her consistent focus on only one humor per play.

Believes that this innovation also becomes Baillie's greatest flaw because, "In seeking to reveal the passion, she loses sight of the man. Commends Baillie's moral and simple life, and praises her literary works, comparing her stark emotional portrayals to Greek drama. Asserts that Baillie and William Wordsworth share responsibility for "the redemption of our poetry from that florid or insipid sentimentalism" of the early part of the century.

Wordsworth and the Cultivation of Women. In a chapter on Wordsworth's poetic vocation, briefly considers Baillie, and argues that although the Introductory Discourse influences Wordsworth's Preface of , the two writers differ on their perceptions of their audiences. Suggests that Baillie hopes to teach her audience while Wordsworth attempts to earn the respect of his audience. Also contends that Baillie desires to create sympathy between the characters in her work and her audience while Wordsworth hopes to gain approval from critics.

Emphasizes Baillie's friendship with Sir Walter Scott. Challenges Scott's positive appraisal of Baillie's work, asserting that Scott's preference for blank verse drama and his admiration of Baillie's moral message led to his overestimation of her work. Also discusses Scott's efforts in the production of The Family Legend. U of Delaware P, In the chapter on Baillie, demonstrates that she critiques gender "not as a biological function but as a cultural practice. Argues that the concerns of these women writers "appear as latent content" in De Monfort and Count Basil.

Interprets the two plays as works which depict men attempting to control women who are struggling to exert their independent will. Gothic Drama in the London Patent Theatres, Society for Theatre Research, Discusses William Capon's set design for the first production of De Monfort. Notes that Baillie's stage directions innovatively suggest hand held lanterns to help illuminate actors' faces more clearly.

Surveys Edmund Kean's and John Philip Kemble's portrayals of De Monfort, and argues that Kean, though less dignified and technically adept than Kemble, brought more sustained energy to the role. Provides a brief description of Baillie's life, and surveys nineteenth-century reactions to her work. Claims that Baillie's blank verse is among the best of the Romantic period because it is "simple and natural, supple and original.

Dismisses Baillie as one who lacks creativity and attempts to write beyond her ability. Provides the often quoted criticism that "No real dramatist would deliberately sit down to write a whole series of Plays on the Passions. Describes the friendship between Scott and Baillie, and states that the two writers viewed each other as literary equals and did not, contrary to some current criticism, see their relationship as that of a master and apprentice. Argues that in "Lines on the Death of Sir Walter Scott," Baillie portrays her friend as the admirable and distinguished lord of Abbotsford while she simultaneously portrays him as a man who easily mixes with and offers friendship to all classes of people.

Finds fault with Baillie's narrow dramatic didacticism, but praises her poetic simplicity and her Scottish ballads. The Contours of Masculine Desire: Romanticism and the Rise of Women's Poetry. Depicts Baillie as a playwright caught in the middle of several conflicts. Argues that Baillie's dramatic theory exists between eighteenth-century sentimentality and rationality. Asserts that, like Wordsworth, Baillie attempts to integrate emotion and thought. Suggests that Baillie examines the masculine world of public affairs and its relationship to internal feelings.

Concludes that Baillie believes that the lack of interaction between these two points of view threatens the stability of society. Argues that Baillie is the foremost intellectual female poet of the age and that her writing possesses "vigour, clearness, and simplicity. Early Women Dramatists, Asserts that in De Monfort , Baillie follows melodramatic conventions too closely, and thus the play remains unconvincing.

States that in contrast, Count Basil 's "sound characterization" contributes to a more effective drama. Also claims that although The Tryal lacks originality, it surpasses other contemporary comedies because of its humor and witty dialog. Claims that while Baillie manages The Family Legend 's stage craft well, she produces a contrived plot and stereotypical characters.

Briefly considers Witchcraft as a more complex and interesting drama. Also explores the gender dynamic in Baillie's work, placing her in alignment with Anne K. Mellor's idea of feminine Romanticism. Reinventing Joanna Baillie as Jane Eyre. Plays by Scots, U of Iowa P, Asserts that Jane De Monfort is the best conceived of Baillie's supporting characters because she is complex and virtuous but not without fault.

Briefly considers Basil and The Tryal , criticizing them for their lack of complexity.

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Relates the story of an actual court case wherein a man confessed to murdering a former classmate due to a long-standing hatred of him. States that this case illustrates that De Monfort 's plot is neither too contrived nor too unbelievable, as some critics had charged. See also Wynn, this section, below. The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry. Briefly notes Baillie's contributions to Scottish literature, stating that the "simplicity in theme, treatment, and language" of later nineteenth-century literature emerges due to Baillie's influence. Provides a first-person account of friendship with Baillie.

Describes the playwright as "small, prim, and Quaker-like" see Simmons, this section, above. Discusses the stage failure of both Kemble's and Kean's productions of De Monfort , attributing their failures to the play's strained emotions. Favorably considers the Edinburgh production of The Family Legend , and asserts the play possesses "action, vigor, and poetical dialogue" which make the play theatrically viable.

Argues that Constantine Paleologus remains Baillie's most stageable play because of its story and vivid characterization. Revises and expands "The Gait Disturb'd," below. Adds that in De Monfort , real and imagined knocking on doors represents the aristocracy's psychological anxiety about the rising middle class. Argues that the decadent party scenes function as the aristocracy's futile attempts to escape society's dissolving hierarchies.

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Joanna Baillie's De Monfort. Argues that the class and gender conflicts of De Monfort highlight Baillie's political awareness. Claims that the personal conflict between De Monfort and Rezenvelt mirrors early nineteenth-century class conflicts. Concludes that De Monfort's psychological instability reflects the "rapidly-increasing social change" of the nineteenth century.

UP of Florida, In the chapter on Baillie which further refines the previous two essays , argues for Baillie's primary importance because she dramatizes the "social and historical pressures" of her era. Drawing on Marxist theory, states that the main conflict in De Monfort is one of class, exemplified through the aristocratic De Monfort and his bourgeois rival, Rezenvelt. Also asserts that the second important struggle for power occurs between genders, with women subject to men regardless of class.

Concludes that De Monfort is the embodiment of the aristocracy, caught between a deteriorating class structure and the collapse of distinct gender roles. Joanna Baillie's Literary Contribution. Surveys nineteenth-century appraisals of Baillie's work and questions why, after such positive comments, Baillie remains largely forgotten. Asserts that Baillie's ideas were "fervently religious, quasi-feminist, anti-canonical, didactic and controversial" and that these views contribute to her canonical exclusion.

Also considers Carhart's biography of Baillie, claiming that social restrictions hindered Carhart from presenting a complete and accurate picture of her subject. Introductory note provides biographical information, and argues that although Scott overrates Baillie's plays, they possess the merits of creativity, dignified verse, and graceful heroines.

Asserts that Baillie will be remembered primarily for her lyrics and songs. Fifty Books from the Romantic Period. Reprints and revises the introduction to Joanna Baillie: A Series of Plays, below. Romanticism On the Net 6 May Argues that, like the dramas which were to follow, Baillie's poems attempt to depict one prevailing passion or mood.

Places Baillie within the Scottish poetic tradition. Notes her influence on William Wordsworth, and claims that Baillie anticipated —if not invented—the lyrical ballad form. Women Writers of the Romantic Age. Poole and Washington D. Reprint of the above introduction with revisions. Offers specific comparisons between Baillie's and William Wordsworth's verse. Examines the historical significance of Scotland's Theatre Royal in relation to Sir Walter Scott's efforts to create a national identity for Scotland.

Discusses The Family Legend as an important early production in the theatre. Diaries of a Lady of Quality, from to Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, Also provides editorial notes defending the authenticity of the story. A review of this book, Edinburgh Review Argues that Baillie's Introductory Discourse and William Wordsworth's Preface are linked by a focus on both "middle and lower class subjects" and "quotidian events.

Argues that the Introductory Discourse raised public expectations which Baillie's subsequent plays failed to reach, thus contributing to her fall from popularity and eventual exclusion from the canon. The Question of Joanna Baillie. Provides a brief biography of Baillie. Asserts that her plays are ridiculous, though De Monfort is "less ludicrous than most. Argues that Baillie's plays failed because she knew little of contemporary theatre practice. Joanna Baillie's "Plays on the Passions". Provides a descriptive and critical study of Baillie's drama.

Provides bibliographical and biographical essays together with a discussion of Baillie's views of comedy, tragedy, and dramaturgy. Not all dissertations were available through inter-library loan. In cases where an abstract exists for a dissertation I could not obtain, I have written an annotation based on the abstract. U of Texas at Dallas, Examines nineteenth-century opinions of Baillie's work, and asserts that Baillie's overt sentimentality challenges standard readings of the Romantic period. High Romanticism's Hidden Gothic. U of Michigan, In a chapter on Baillie, argues that Baillie utilizes gothic conventions while distancing herself from their lack of sophistication.

States that Baillie "markets herself as a socially benign and culturally legitimate alternative" to the excess of gothic theatre. Asserts that Baillie avoids "supernatural spectacles" in an effort to reform drama. Also suggests that Baillie attempts to continue Shakespearean styles in a new context and explores Baillie's influence on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's revisions to Remorse.

U of Virginia, Asserts that Baillie attempts to "rehabilitate" femininity by removing "women's autonomous sexuality" from public life as well as by emphasizing the "sanctity of maternity" in private life. States that De Monfort promulgates "Tory evangelical ideology" by espousing the virtue of reason and "passionlessness. Bowling Green State U, Considers Baillie among 17 other British women poets, and provides a biographical sketch of her.

Defines Baillie as an important author because of her large reading public. Kent State U, Contends that Baillie's effectiveness as a writer of moral tragedies emerges from her ability to depict ordinary people under extraordinary levels of passion. States that Baillie rejects satirical, sentimental, and circumstantial comedies because these do not provide moral edification.

Shows that Baillie developed "characteristic comedy" to instruct readers and to develop sympathetic curiosity in them, just as in tragedy. U of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, In a short section on Baillie, examines Orra in relation to her dramatic theories. States that Orra suffers because other passions—such as pride—play important roles in the play. Also believes that the presence of a Gothic villain frustrates the entirely internal development of fear. Claims that Baillie's plays anticipate later drama in several ways, including her portrayals of "Byronic" heroes.

Asserts that Baillie's movement from "Gothic drama to religious drama to prose tragedy" parallels larger dramatic trends in the early nineteenth century. U of Iowa, Provides a survey of Baillie's life, the theatrical conventions of the Romantic age, and Baillie's dramatic theory, and concludes that Baillie's greatest strength lies in her characterization.

Argues that De Monfort illustrates "the nature of humanity" and the "Biblical principle" of the struggle against powers of evil. Contends that by focussing on the human mind in De Monfort , Baillie creates a tragedy without political, class, or economic concerns. Asserts that Baillie's comedy, The Tryal , anticipates the realism of twentieth-century comedy. Poetic Painting in Romantic Drama. U of California, Santa Cruz, In a chapter on Baillie, argues that Baillie's concept of dramaturgy rests on a foundation of character as it is perceived in nineteenth-century medicine and psychology.

States that Baillie's plays manifest internal realities and conflicts. Asserts that Baillie explores the "perceptions of the mind" as related to actual "emotional experience. Examines the interconnections between the Introductory Discourse and Wordsworth's Preface , arguing that Baillie's "aesthetic theory. U of Stirling, Explores connections between A Series of Plays and Renaissance drama, and asserts that Baillie attempts to "reconstitute and sanitize issues and themes" of the earlier period. Argues, however, that Baillie's literary allusions undermine her moral aims.

Pennsylvania State U, Claims that Baillie reshapes nineteenth-century theatre by attempting "to unite the lyricism of the past with the morality of the present. States that, contrary to her other plays, Constantine Paleologus represents men as reasonable and women as sentimental. Shows that Orra explores the horror of the supernatural and that it locates terror within the domestic sphere. Also asserts that Orra's madness allows her to subvert masculine power structures. Contains a picture of Baillie. Joanna Baillie, De Monfort. Prints De Monfort Act 2.

Cox's Seven Gothic Dramas. Prints "The Maid of Llanwellyn" and includes a link to a melody which can be downloaded. A National Digital Library. Contains a picture of Baillie's monument in Bothwell, Scotland. New Paradigms and Recoveries Joanna Baillie: Hannah Brand and Theatre Politics in the s. Composition as a crisis of subjectivity in Romantic and Post-Romantic writing.

Manchester University Press, Cambridge University Press, Article body Notes on Methodology and Terminology Although I endeavored to view as many of the sources as possible, limits of time and resources prevented me from examining each source listed here, especially those from the nineteenth century. Abbreviations used in this bibliography include: Athenaeum 2 Jan. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 39 Edinburgh Review 63 Fraser's Magazine 13 Gentleman's Magazine ns 6 London and Westminster Review 33 Quarterly Review 55 Athenaeum 26 Mar Athenaeum 27 Feb.

Edinburgh Review 5 Imperial Review 3 This affective discrimination, driven by the operation of these objects of coercion, seems to point beyond a phenomenological consideration of charm as reduction, and opens up readings of the novels that dispute the aesthetic of mastery. I even wrote The Awkward Age with it; therefore look sharp! The ontological privilege may be shifted to the reader: In the phenomenology of reading how is shame affected by the creation of new meaning?

This may, as in Maisie, be due to a signified trauma, the violent divorce which creates the faultline standing metaphorically and perversely in place of a primal scene for Maisie, as a negative sign which generates the substitute parents who will serially fail to stand in the place of that divorce: How to recover the child, how can the child recover? The figure of development is carried inconsistently by the developments of narrative discourse, the infantile signified moving in and out of focus against the textual body of the signifier of the speech act as an act of authority.

Even at that moment, however, she had a scared anticipation of fatigue, a guilty sense of not rising to the occasion, feeling the charm of the violence with which the stiff unopened envelopes, whose big monograms—Ida bristled with monograms—she would have liked to see, were made to whizz, like dangerous missiles, through the air The evacuation of meaning is performed on many levels.

Feverish metonymies enroll her in adult desire: She found out what it was In this way the text installs an uncertainty of reference that extends to the basic shifters of deixis, for example whether pronouns are marked restricted in reference or unmarked general: This is a frequent feature of The Awkward Age: What shall I say? So that unless he pulls her off. The dialectical irony of the performative anchoring of the self-reference is its ethical supersession; this is also what makes a rereading of the novels a significantly more ethically focussed experience than a first reading: Too beautiful for the book, except that the ethical beauty fades, the ethical text remains.

She puzzled out with imperfect signs, but with a prodigious spirit, that she had been a centre of hatred and a messenger of insult In what sense could writing be read as a metaphor of speech? The play of narrative modalities carries more than one truth. That lack of clarity makes what she knew, new; coercion becomes the very sign and praxis of artistic freedom, and ultimately of literariness itself. Le bruissement de la langue. A Forum on Fiction Summer , n. Literary Form and Sociological Theory.

Awkwardness in The Awkward Age. The Untried Years Library of America, Notes of a Son and Brother. Analogy in The Sacred Fount.