“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Schillace, Brandy L.
Language:	English
Published:	Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK 2010
Subjects:	English literature long eighteenth-century proto-feminism pedagogy rhetoric British fiction
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1264189942

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spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-case12641899422021-08-03T05:33:33Z “The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty Schillace, Brandy L. English literature long eighteenth-century proto-feminism pedagogy rhetoric British fiction <i>“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty</i> redresses a critical blind spot in current scholarship on early British women’s writing on female education. In the prevailing critical paradigm, only treatises directly addressing women’s rights have been considered part of the “feminist” tradition. The result has been the neglect of authors who do not produce self-conscious feminist discourse, but subtly merge proto-feminist goals with a more conservative discursive approach. This neglect has led to a perceived “gap” between the works of an early writer such as Mary Astell (educationalist and proto-feminist) and later acknowledged feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft. For many critics, 1740 marks the point after which the history of feminist educational reform begins, an approach that elides seventeenth-century polemical, rhetorical and narrative projects, and overlooks radical explorations of (and alternatives to) developing ideological constructs. This project examines the rhetorical landscape of this earlier period in order to explore proto-feminist responses to educational inequality—and reassess the frequently politic method adopted by educationalists such as Astell and her contemporaries, Bathsua Makin, Judith Drake and Mary Chudleigh. By resisting narrow conceptual categories for proto-feminist contributions, this work recuperates early modern women’s rhetorical productions and their use of innovative strategies that do not merely mimic those of men. Additionally, it traces those strategies in eighteenth-century fiction where claims for women’s moral and intellectual equality were employed by a rising generation of female fiction writers. In charting this historical process, the first part of the dissertation offers a detailed exploration of proto-feminist rhetoric, while the second part demonstrates the transition (and transmission) of this rhetoric in later fictional forms, offering a corrective to the supposed hundred-year silence in pro-woman rhetoric between Astell and Wollstonecraft. <i>The Alphabet of Sense</i> thus contributes to the current rhetorical and feminist reclamation of early women writers; coupling rhetoric with feminism enriches both concepts, allowing us to see these authors in their proper light as pivotal advocates for women’s intellectual advancement. 2010-07-30 English text Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1264189942 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1264189942 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	English literature long eighteenth-century proto-feminism pedagogy rhetoric British fiction
spellingShingle	English literature long eighteenth-century proto-feminism pedagogy rhetoric British fiction Schillace, Brandy L. “The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty
author	Schillace, Brandy L.
author_facet	Schillace, Brandy L.
author_sort	Schillace, Brandy L.
title	“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty
title_short	“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty
title_full	“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty
title_fullStr	“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty
title_full_unstemmed	“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty
title_sort	“the alphabet of sense”: rediscovering the rhetoric of women’s intellectual liberty
publisher	Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK
publishDate	2010
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1264189942
work_keys_str_mv	AT schillacebrandyl thealphabetofsenserediscoveringtherhetoricofwomensintellectualliberty
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“The Alphabet of Sense”: Rediscovering the Rhetoric of Women’s Intellectual Liberty

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