Women and Print Culture: The Construction of Femininity in the Early Periodical

Description

Cover Title Copyright Original Title Original Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments 1 'Fair-sexing it': an introduction to periodical literature and the eighteenth-century construction of femininity The problems of ideology and the middle class Thinking about women in the eighteenth century The periodical and the 'rise of the novel' 2 Early periodicals and their readers The establishment of the periodical press The reconstitution of the reader Literacy and the practice of reading The reformist agenda and the woman reader Audience complicity in the early periodical The community of the text The periodical and the representation of the woman reader 3 Readers as writers: the female subject in the Athenian Mercury Audience-building in the Athenian Mercury Correspondence and narratives Anonymity and self-revelation Epistolary parody: the London Mercury Epistolarity and authority Athenian iconography The intervention of the text into private life Reading the Athenian Mercury 4 'A sort of sex in souls': the Tatler and the Spectator Correspondence and audience-building: Women as letter-writers in the Tatler and the Spectator The structural function of letters in the Tatler Women as correspondents of the Tatler Letters in the Spectator The life and fortunes of Jenny Distaff Jenny as writing subject Educating Jenny The figure of domestic womanhood from the Tatler to the Spectator Supplementing Jenny Distaff: the further configuration of the domestic woman in the Tatler The Spectator Sentimentality and didacticism 5 Gender specialization and the feminine curriculum: the periodical for women Women as readers and readers as women: the specialization of the women's periodical The gallantry of a philosopher: the Free-Thinker Defining the territory of the women's periodical: the Visiter Feminine authority and the essay-periodical: the Female Spectator The periodical as syllabus: the early women's magazines The Lady's Museum and the feminine curriculum Later magazines and the instruction in femininity Afterword Notes Works cited Index