Joanna Baillie Criticism
Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) was a Scottish poet, playwright, and essayist whose innovative contributions to drama and literature have recently garnered renewed scholarly attention. Known for her exploration of human passions and moral insight, Baillie's work was initially more celebrated in print than on the stage. Her seminal series A Series of Plays: In Which it is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind showcased her ability to delve into the psychological complexities of emotion, a concept she elaborated in her "Introductory Discourse." Distinguished literary figures such as Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron admired her, as noted by William D. Brewer.
Baillie was born in Bothwell, Scotland, and later moved to London, where she became an integral part of a vibrant literary scene. Despite initially publishing anonymously, she soon emerged as a key female figure in literature. Her use of Gothic conventions, particularly in De Monfort, and her nuanced depiction of women and societal roles, are explored by Jeffrey N. Cox, while Beth H. Friedman-Romell highlights her plays' engagement with themes of Scottish patriotism and British nationalism in works like The Family Legend.
Baillie’s plays, although often dubbed "closet dramas," were intended for theatrical performance. Her intricate characterizations and moral inquiries paved the way for subsequent Romantic literature. Adrienne Scullion regards her as Scotland's leading playwright of her time, and Maureen Dowd discusses her influence on and divergence from the German Sturm und Drang style.
Her early work, Poems; Wherein It Is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and of Rustic Manners (1790), marked the beginning of a career that would eventually challenge traditional theatrical norms through works like Plays on the Passions (1798). This series, which Joseph W. Donohue notes for its focus on internal conflicts, became crucial in understanding her literary legacy. Donohue's insights reveal Baillie's sophisticated engagement with tragedy and comedy.
Baillie's plays, particularly De Monfort, defied conventions with their exploration of social and class issues, as analyzed by Daniel P. Watkins. Her feminist perspectives on gender and society align with the works of Anne K. Mellor and Marjean D. Purinton, and have been re-evaluated by scholars like Catherine B. Burroughs.
Despite critical views that her plays were more suited for reading than performance, Baillie's introspective works have been recognized for their impact on drama and theatrical theory. Her strengths in poetry, as opposed to drama, are acknowledged by critics such as Om Prakash Mathur, while P. M. Zall and Margaret S. Carhart continue to explore her innovative approaches to emotion in drama.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Baillie, Joanna (Vol. 151)
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The Plays of Joanna Baillie
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In the following essay, Norton presents an overview of Baillie's dramatic works.
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Joanna Baillie and Lord Byron
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In the following essay, Brewer analyzes the relationship between Baillie and Lord Byron, discussing Byron's admiration for Baillie even when he dismissed other female writers; her influence on his plays, particularly his presentation of male characters; and her harsh judgments of his literary efforts and personal life.
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‘Out of the Pale of Social Kindred Cast’: Conflicted Performance Styles in Joanna Baillie's De Monfort
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In the following essay, Burroughs discusses Baillie's categorization of her plays as closet drama and considers questions about gender, identity, and repression in her works, particularly in the tragedy De Monfort.
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‘A Reasonable Woman's Desire’: The Private Theatrical and Joanna Baillie's The Tryal
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In the following essay, Burroughs examines Baillie's exploration in The Tryal of the “theatre of the closet,” or private theatricals performed by amateurs to invited audiences, showing that Baillie presents amateur acting as a means by which women could have temporary control of their domestic spaces.
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From Here to Alterity: The Geography of Femininity in the Poetry of Joanna Baillie
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In the following essay, Gilroy offers close readings of three poems by Baillie set outside her usual Scottish domestic milieu in order to show how the poet explores the limits imposed on women in life and literature.
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Some Women of the Nineteenth-century Scottish Theatre: Joanna Baillie, Frances Wright and Helen MacGregor
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In the following excerpt, Scullion views Baillie as the most important playwright in Scotland in the 1800s and sees her works as having a form peculiar to the nineteenth century.
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Duelling Citizenships: Scottish Patriotism v. British Nationalism in Joanna Baillie's The Family Legend
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In the following essay, Friedman-Romell contends that Baillie solidified her reputation as her country's most important playwright through her characterizations of Scottish heroes, her discourse on the civilizing forces of womanhood and Protestantism, and her rewriting of Scottish history in the patriotic drama The Family Legend.
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‘By the Delicate Hand of a Female’: Melodramatic Mania and Joanna Baillie's Spectacular Tragedies
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In the following essay, Dowd shows how and why Baillie distanced herself from German Sturm und Drang melodrama even while using its techniques—especially those of grand spectacle, the depiction of the lower and middle classes, and the use of moral pedagogy. The critic also notes the parallels between Baillie's works and those of Friedrich Schiller.
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Joanna Baillie, Passionate Anatomist: Basil and Its Masquerade
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In the following essay, Gilbert focuses on the use of the masquerade in Basil and argues that the device is used to comment on female visibility and invisibility as well as Baillie's own relationship to the theater.
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Christianity and Colonial Discourse in Joanna Baillie's The Bride
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In the following essay, Colón argues that Baillie's rhetorical strategy in The Bride transforms the imperial endeavor of converting the natives of Sri Lanka into a revolutionary discourse on equality by presenting the issue of polygamy in a complex manner.
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Aristocratic Monstrosity and Sublime Femininity in De Monfort
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In the following essay, Brigham contrasts the views of Baillie and Edmund Burke on the subject of “the passions,” focusing on how De Monfort criticizes Burke's notions of the unreflective immediacy of the passionate response to beauty.
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The Plays of Joanna Baillie
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Baillie, Joanna (Vol. 71)
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Joanna Baillie's Place in Literature
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Below, Carhart contends that Baillie's insistence that her plays present moral instruction and that individuals represent particular emotions was at the expense of believable characters. Carhart also traces the development of Baillie's works as they moved from emphasizing the intellectual to emphasizing the emotional.
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Romantic Heroism and Its Milieu
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In the following excerpt, Donohue contends that the public failure of De Montfort was due largely to Baillie's unpopular but important innovation of internalizing conflict within the play's characters.
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Joanna Baillie
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Below, Mathur argues that Baillie's plays are, for the most part, dramatically unsound but acknowledges Baillie's strength as a poet.
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The Cool World of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Question of Joanna Baillie
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In the following essay, Zall provides an overview of Baillie's literary career and explores the drawbacks of Baillie's high reputation.
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Class, Gender, and Social Motion in Joanna Baillie's DeMonfort
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In the following essay, Watkins stresses the historical value of De Monfort's depictions of social conditions and class conflicts.
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Joanna Baillie and the Counter-Public Sphere
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In the essay below, Mellor argues that Baillie's works offered alternative, feminist views to contemporary readers in place of the commonly extolled views of white middle-class males.
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Joanna Baillie's Count Basil and De Monfort: The Unveiling of Gender Issues
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In the following essay, Purinton places Baillie within the context of other women writers of her time and examines the overlap of political and gender issues in Count Basil and De Monfort.
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Introduction to Revolution and Romanticism, 1789-1834
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Below, Wordsworth praises Baillie 's poetry and explores its strong influence on William Wordsworth's lyrical ballads.
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Private Theatricals and Baillie's The Tryal
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In the following essay, Burroughs explores "closet plays" — performed for private audiences—and their usefulness to women authors in advancing feminist perspectives. Burroughs also discusses domestic relations in The Tryal, as well as Baillie's theory of comedy, which emphasized the importance of presenting realistic, everyday situations.
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Joanna Baillie's Place in Literature
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- Further Reading