In Mildness Straining: Philomela and the female classical tradition of the long eighteenth century

Abstract

The discipline of classical reception has, in the last decade, taken considerable steps forward in contextualising how women have, throughout history, responded to – and reclaimed – the ancient world. In recovering these women’s voices from the margins of literary history, we are able to piece together how individual women adapted classical authors and their texts, articulating contemporary concerns from a consciously gendered position.

This thesis, a historically informed literary study, is situated within this fast-expanding field of research: I shall demonstrate how seven eighteenth-century women used the myth of Philomela – the Athenian-princess-turned-nightingale – to reflect on their position as women writers. Although there was a lively and ongoing tradition of literary nightingales upon which these authors could draw, it is apparent that the tradition inspired by the mythical figure of Philomela held an additional significance to the women writers of the long eighteenth century – for the gender ideology of the period could interpret the public circulation of a woman’s verses as an indicator of her moral deficiency, or sexual availability. As women began to enter the literary marketplace in ever-increasing numbers over the course of the century, attempting to overcome the silence imposed upon them and find a means of self-expression, one can understand why they sought out Philomela who, within several feminist readings of the myth, likewise overcomes an act of silencing. Through their engagement with the myth of Philomela, individual women writers developed a distinct and self-referential classical tradition, which not only enabled them to speak with greater poetic authority, but also facilitated in the construction of female literary communities.