Context: Female Writers Flashcards

Felicia Hemans, Augusta Webster, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Letitia Elizabeth Landon (LEL), Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot)

1
Q

What was the victorian sociotel view on women as authors?

A

Victorians saw poetry as ‘too high and great’ for women. They also believed that womens literature was ‘too political’ and ‘too feminist’ to be considered worthy literature.

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2
Q

How old was Feicia Hemans when she published her first poetry book, and how many more did she go on to publish?

A

14 years old. She published eighteen more throughout the course of her life.

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3
Q

How was Felicia Hemans deemed invalid by society?

A

She had six children to support after separating from her husband.

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4
Q

What is Hemans main themes for her poems.

A

Motherhood, marriage, grief and love.

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5
Q

What are two of Felicia Hemans main publications from when Rossetti was alive?

A

Records of Woman (1830)
Songs of the Affections (1866)

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6
Q

What did Felicia Hemans write about in Records of Woman?

A

She focuses on heroines from over the world, from Joan of Arc to an unknown Indian woman. She celebrates the courage, passion and love of women.

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7
Q

When did Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L) start publishing her poetry?

A

When she was 18. (1820)

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8
Q

What type of literature of L.E.L’s was well recieved at the time?

A

Her long narrative poems. (The Improvisatrice, The Troubadour and The Golden Violet)

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9
Q

In what year did L.E.L marry a governor of the Gold Coast, and why?

A

To escape scandal.

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10
Q

What was L.E.L’s husband notorious for?

A

His cruelty.

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11
Q

How long had L.E.L been living in Africa until she was found dead?

A

Three months.

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12
Q

How was L.E.L found dead?

A

With a bottle of prussic acid in her hand.

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13
Q

How old was L.E.L when she died?

A
  1. 1802-1838
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14
Q

In what ways is it evident that L.E.L inspired Rossetti’s poetry?

A

Many of her poems explore difficulties faced by women and discuss the issue of women’s fame.

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15
Q

What poem did Rossetti write in honour of L.E.L and why?

A

L.E.L was the title of the poem and it was written as a response to Brownings poem with the same focus.

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16
Q

By what age had Elizabeth Barrett Browning written complex and accomplished poetry?

A

Twelve.

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17
Q

What classical texts had Elizabeth Barrett Browning read at an early age?

A

Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

18
Q

Similarly to other female authors of the time, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was deemed invalid, but why?

A

She fell seriously ill at the age of 20, and spent the rest of her life battling her poor health.

19
Q

What impact did Browning have on Rossetti’s poetry?

A

Rossetti called Browning ‘The Great Poetess’. Rossetti ackowledges Browning’s influence on her poetry in her 1881 preface to the sonnet sequence ‘Monna Innominata’.

20
Q

What did Rossetti want to do, to which Brownings husband refused?

A

Rossetti wanted to write a biography about Browning, to which Robert Browning (poet) objected.

21
Q

When and where was Augusta Webster born?

A

In Poole in 1837.

22
Q

What was Webster’s education like?

A

Her education was informal however, she studied at the Cambridge School of Arts.

23
Q

When was Webster’s first volume published, and who were they published with?

A

In 1860 with her husband, under the psyeudonym Cecil Home.

24
Q

How many volumes of verse did Webster publish under her married name?

A

Five. They established her as a unique name in victorian poetry: (Dramatic Studies 1866, A Woman Sold 1867, Portraits 1870)

25
Q

How are Webster’s novels and plays recieved today?

A

Although successful in the 19th Century, they are less popular today.

26
Q

What contriversial topic does Webster talk about in ‘The Castaway 1870’?

A

Prostitution.

27
Q

How was Rossetti influenced by Webster?

A

By current discourses on social problems. Webster was particularly concerned with the welfare of women who wanted to come out of prostitution.

28
Q

When did the Bronte sisters publish their first volume of poetry?

A

May 1846.

29
Q

Under what pseudonyms did the Bronte sisters publish their works?

A

Currer Bell (Charlotte)
Ellis Bell (Emily)
Acton Bell (Anne)

30
Q

How were the pseudonyms beneficial for the Bronte sisters?

A

It prtected them from male critics.

31
Q

How did Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) begin writing?

A

As an assistiant editor in the radical journal ‘Westminster Review’.

32
Q

How did Mary Ann Evans adopt her pseudonym?

A

Under the encouragement of her lover, George Henry Lewes who influenced her to beginn writing fiction.

33
Q

What factors prompted Mary Ann Evans to publish under a pseudonym?

A

To avoid female steryotyping under a male alias.

34
Q

How did Mary Ann Evans influence Rossetti in her writing?

A

With her politically astute thinking.

35
Q

What is Harriet Martineau known as?

A

The first female sociologist. She was a social theorist.

36
Q

Name 5 types of Harriet Martineau’s written works.

A

Novelist, translator, reviewer, journalist, children’s
author, personal correspondent, political campaigner, travel writer,
pamphleteer, memoirist and historian.

37
Q

What was unique as Harriet Martineau as a female author of the time?

A

She earnt enough money to support herself financially.

38
Q

How many copies of ‘Illustrations of a Social Economy’ did Harriet Martineau sell?

A

Ten thousand, that outstripped that of Charles Dickens.

39
Q

What did Martineau advocate for?

A

Womens rights, abolition of slavery, religious tolerance, and the struggle of the common worker.

40
Q

What was Martineau’s contriversial view on femenist authors?

A

She disaproved of femenists who drew attention to their personal lives in their work.

41
Q
A