La instrucción moral en la prensa inglesa del siglo XVIIIThe Spectator y The Female Spectator. La influencia de Eliza Haywood

  1. Díaz Sánchez, isabel 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Alicante (España)
Journal:
Revista de Historia Moderna

ISSN: 0212-5862,  1989-9823

Year of publication: 2023

Issue: 41

Pages: 198-219

Type: Article

DOI: 10.14198/RHM.24804 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openRUA editor

More publications in: Revista de Historia Moderna

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Abstract

This paper presents the impact of the newspaper The Female Spectator (1744-1746) in the context of the Eighteenth-century English press. One of the objectives of this study is the analysis of how Eliza Haywood, founder, and anonymous writer of the periodical, addresses the theme of moral instruction and the education of women in the Enlightenment. The influence of women’s amatory novels such as Mary Astell’s Love in Excess (1719), and the important contribution of other newspapers in the great century of the modern English press, is also noted. The Female Spectator is the counterpoint to one of the most important newspapers of the first half of the Eighteenth century and arguably one of the most important contributions of the period: The Spectator (1711-1712) by Joseph Addison and Richard Steel. The analysis of this popular newspaper shows how the two writers, in their didactic zeal and moral instruction, criticize the prototype of the «coquette» woman and the prototype of the «beau» man. In a century where rational thinking prevails above all else, these two figures represent irrational behavior that deviates from moral and social norms. This work is based on the hypothesis that the contributions of newspapers and periodicals, written and addressed to a female audience, are one of the most innovative axes in the study of the history and literature of the time, and of the incipient empowerment of women. Eliza Haywood, with The Female Spectator, manages to make, for the first time, a periodical publication that competes with the periodicals of other renowned writers of the Enlightenment and, in addition, makes them aware of the power of authorship and literary reception.

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Data source: Dialnet