Hannah Webster Foster Criticism
Hannah Webster Foster, an American novelist born in 1758, is best known for her novel The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton (1797), which was widely popular in its time. The novel is a fictional retelling of the life and tragic death of Elizabeth Whitman, exploring the constraints imposed on women in the early American republic. Eliza Wharton, the protagonist, navigates her autonomy against societal expectations, a theme that resonates with Foster's subtle critique of the moral standards of her day, as noted by critics like Sharon M. Harris and Frank Shuffelton. Eliza’s predicament mirrors the emerging American values of individualism and the challenges faced by women in this context, as analyzed by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and Gillian Brown.
Foster's second novel, The Boarding School (1798), offers a conduct-based narrative intertwined with themes of female education and societal roles, echoing Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist ideas. Critics like Claire C. Pettengill and Jeffrey H. Richards have examined this work for its depiction of female friendship and its challenge to the expected norms of nineteenth-century women. Though less critically acclaimed than The Coquette, The Boarding School reflects Foster's concern with the social fabric and the role of women as central to its integrity.
Modern criticism, particularly in the late twentieth century, has revitalized interest in Foster’s work, with The Coquette seen as a critical study of personal integrity versus social responsibility and women’s roles in a burgeoning America. Scholars like David Waldstreicher and Julia Stern have highlighted Foster’s nuanced use of language and sentiment to critique societal norms, making her work a cornerstone of early American literature.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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Mrs. Foster's Coquette and the Decline of Brotherly Watch
(summary)
In the following essay, Shuffelton discusses The Coquette in the context of the changing culture in eighteenth-century America, focusing on how fashionable behavior displaced religious dictates as the standard of morality.
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Domesticating ‘Virtue’: Coquettes and Revolutionaries in Young America
(summary)
In the following essay, Smith-Rosenberg examines Eliza as representative of the nascent middle class in eighteenth-century America, characterized by a desire for individualism and risk-taking. According to Smith-Rosenberg, in The Coquette Foster reevaluates the place of women in society within male notions of nationalism and class.
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Sisterhood in a Separate Sphere: Female Friendship in Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette and The Boarding School
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In the following essay, Pettengill analyzes the function of the circle of female friends in The Coquette and The Boarding School, asserting that the parallel plot involving what happens to this powerful group of women is equally integral to the novel as the seduction plot.
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‘Fallen under My Observation’: Vision and Virtue in The Coquette
(summary)
In the following essay, Waldstreicher evaluates the unspoken communication of sentiment that aids characters in interpreting one another's actions, noting that women's subjective experience comes under the closest scrutiny.
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Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette: Critiquing Franklin's America
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In the following essay, Harris suggests that in The Coquette, Foster satirizes women's social reality and sentimental language in order to expose the sexist basis of the national political ideology.
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Consent, Coquetry, and Consequences
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In the following essay, Brown interprets Eliza's plight in The Coquette in terms of her self-determination, or desire to create her own individual identity. Brown points out that women's role in the social contract of the American republic did not necessarily benefit them or even ensure their rights.
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Beyond ‘A Play about Words’: Tyrannies of Voice in The Coquette
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Stern explores the connection between women's imagination and freedom in The Coquette, concluding that women lacked true freedom in the American republic of the time.
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The Politics of Seduction: Theater, Sexuality, and National Virtue in the Novels of Hannah Foster
(summary)
In the following essay, Richards examines the motif of theatricality in The Coquette and The Boarding School as a paradigm for women's lives in the America of Foster's era, noting that women were called upon to know how to act on the social stage, yet they were expected to resist its attractions.
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Mrs. Foster's Coquette and the Decline of Brotherly Watch
(summary)
- Further Reading