In mid-eighteenth-century Great Britain, the fictional works of Sarah Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Laurence Sterne, and Henry Mackenzie exemplify the discourse concerning the role of sensibility in constructing the ideal individual as well as the ideal community of individuals. These authors of sentimental novels could not resolve the contradiction between the claims of sensibility as naturally inherent in all people and the need to instruct their readers in sympathy and benevolence. The main emphasis of the cultural project of which these works are a part was to construct a masculine ideal who responded to the social problems associated with increasing commercialism and social mobility. This masculine ideal, often referred to as a man of feeling, stood in contrast to the values both of the older aristocracy and the newer mercantile interests The novel, as a literary genre, accommodates the complexity and contradictions inherent in social relations making it ideal for exposing the social conventions of the culture of which it is a part. Both M. M. Bakhtin and Wolfgang Iser argue that novels contain evaluative commentaries through which literary critics can examine their underlying thought systems for their weaknesses and their claims to universality. My examinination exposes the often contradictory ideals concerning masculine behavior and its relationship to the emotions of benevolence and sympathy that were prevalent in the philosophical, moral, medical, and novelistic discourse in mid-eighteenth-century Britain. David Simple, Sir Charles Grandison, A Sentimental Journey, and The Man of Feeling can then be seen as 'rejoinders' in the discourse of sensibility in which the authors examine the qualities of and difficulties faced by a man of feeling during this time of increasing economic, political, and social change / acase@tulane.edu

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Jurgen Habermas argues that in the early modern period western culture increasingly divided itself into separate spheres: the public sphere and the intimate domestic sphere. Michel Foucault has demonstrated that sexual discourse proliferated during this time period--mainly because of a 'determination on the part of agencies of power' to have sex discussed. This dissertation explores how sexual discourse, specifically sexual violence, was used in the production of this new dichotomized society. Therefore, after placing women in the larger cultural context, the dissertation first examines the uses of rape in the works of Samuel Richardson in order to expose the cultural (and often conscious) use of rape to control women's behavior and, thereby, to produce Mary Poovey's proper (and, now, private) lady. Fielding, discussed next, uses rape in an effort to maintain the older, classical, male homo-social order. For example, he uses rape as a way to punish educated women, and he uses rape as a means to figure his dissatisfaction with fluctuations in social class. Frances Burney, discussed in chapter four, expresses her condemnation of and reaction to this new social order. The conclusion argues that Eliza Haywood, Elizabeth Inchbald, Tobias Smollett, and Sir Walter Scott prove that the discourse of sexual violence is widespread and needs more exploration / acase@tulane.edu

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The early writers of the Royal Society--Thomas Sprat, Joseph Glanvill, John Wilkins, Robert Hooke, and Robert Boyle--recognized the need to develop a rhetoric that would answer the purpose of prose intended to inform and instruct as well as to persuade. The excessive ornamentation formerly considered mandatory for persuasive discourse represented to them an instrument to inflame the passions or deceive the mind, and therefore a barrier to clarity and understanding By concentrating on the effective manipulation of words rather than on the reasoned inquiry into probable truths, Elizabethan rhetoricians such as Richard Sherry, Henry Peacham, and George Puttenham had reduced the art of persuasion to the study of ornamentation. In contrast, Francis Bacon's rhetorical theory stressed a primary concern for matter over manner and for sound and reasoned presentation of material in all discourse aimed at discovering truth. Still, Bacon recognized the need for the persuasive art, viewing it as a valid means of making the truth available--and believable--to others Following Bacon's lead, the pioneer scientists of the Royal Society aimed for an unambiguous discourse that was capable of transmitting informational content without depending for meaning upon the hearer's preconceptions of the subject matter, the occasion for the discourse, or the character of the writer. In their desire to demonstrate the truth of their discoveries and the validity of their theories, the experimental philosophers demanded a clear, logical method of presenting their material and an explicit and highly referential language The legacy of writers of the Royal Society was two-fold: they established the ground rules for scientific discourse, and they created the kind of essay that was capable of bringing complex information to a general audience. Aiming to secure the support of their readers, the writers of the Royal Society created an informative essay directed toward the popular audience that was persuasive as well. Rather than persuading by means of rhetorical techniques that raise passions and stir emotions, however, they grounded their persuasion in a logically connected appeal to reason. It was this kind of discourse that informed the popular periodical essays of the eighteenth century / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu