CRITICISM

Bennett, Susan. “Genre Trouble: Joanna Baillie, Elizabeth Polack—Tragic Subjects, Melodramatic Subjects.” In Women and Playwriting in Nineteenth-Century Britain, edited by Tracy C. Davis and Ellen Donkin, pp. 215-32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Argues that traditional genres are too confining for women playwrights of the nineteenth century, focusing specifically on Baillie's The Family Legend.

Burroughs, Catherine B. “English Romantic Women Writers and Theatre Theory: Joanna Baillie's Prefaces to the Plays on the Passions.” In Re-Visioning Romanticism: British Women Writers, 1776-1837, edited by Carol Shiner Wilson and Joel Haefner, pp. 274-96. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.

Argues that a true understanding of what Baillie and other female playwrights of her era chose as subject matter will cause scholars to reevaluate traditional conceptions of Romantic theater theory.

———. “The English Romantic Closet: Women Theatre Artists, Joanna Baillie, and Basil.” Nineteenth-Century Contexts 19, no. 2 (1995): 125-49.

Notes that a study of Basil raises the issue of the extent to which the private theatrical or “closet play” was suited to dramatize characters struggling with “unmentionable” problems, including those related to gender identity.

———. “Joanna Baillie's Poetic Aesthetic: Passion and ‘the Plain Order of Things.’” In Approaches to Teaching British Women Poets of the Romantic Period, edited by Stephen C. Behrendt and Harriet Kramer Linkin, pp. 135-40. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1997.

Assesses Baillie's poetry in the context of her generalizations and speculations about playwriting and theater production.

Burroughs, Catherine, ed. Women in British Romantic Theatre: Drama, Performance and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, 360 p.

Collects essays examining the contribution of women playwrights, actors, translators, critics, and managers who worked in British theatre during the Romantic period; contains several essays on Baillie.

Carney, Sean. “The Passion of Joanna Baillie: Playwright as Martyr.” Theatre Journal 52, no. 2 (May 2000): 227-52.

Looks at the manner in which Baillie's dramatic works present Adam Smith's conservative ethical conflict between self-command and passion.

Carswell, Donald. “Joanna Baillie.” In Sir Walter: A Four-Part Study in Biography (Scott, Hogg, Lockhart, Joanna Baillie), pp. 262-86. London: John Murray, 1930.

Emphasizes the high regard Sir Walter Scott held for Baillie personally and professionally.

Forbes, Aileen. “‘Sympathetic Curiosity’ in Joanna Baillie's Theater of the Passions.” European Romantic Review 14, no. 1 (March 2003): 31-48.

Contrasts Baillie's plays with other “closet dramas,” asserting that Baillie infuses her plays with psychological insights and passion.

Gamer, Michael. “National Supernaturalism: Joanna Baillie, Germany, and the Gothic Drama.” Theatre Survey 38, no. 2 (November 1997): 50-88.

Seeks to solidify Baillie's reputation within the canon of Romantic drama, noting that her work has elements of the Gothic as well as high poetry.

Henderson, Andrea. “Passion and Fashion in Joanna Baillie's ‘Introductory Discourse.’” PMLA 112, no. 2 (March 1997): 198-213.

Explores how Baillie treats the relationship between the passions and consumerism in the “Introductory Discourse” to her plays.

Hoagwood, Terence Allan. “Elizabeth Inchbald, Joanna Baillie, and Revolutionary Representations of the ‘Romantic’ Period.” In Rebellious Hearts: British Women Writers and the French Revolution, edited by Adriana Craciun and Kari E. Lokke, pp. 293-316. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Uses Baillie's Constantine Paleologus and Elizabeth Inchbald's The Massacre to comment on the ways in which a commodity culture assessed Romantic drama.

McMillan, Dorothy. “‘Dr’ Baillie.” In 1798: The Year of the Lyrical Ballads, edited by Richard Cronin, pp. 68-92. New York: Macmillan Press, 1998.

Argues that Baillie was tougher and more independent than she is usually portrayed—even by herself.

Purinton, Marjean D. “Joanna Baillie's Count Basil and De Monfort: The Unveiling of Gender Issues.” In Romantic Ideology Unmasked: The Mentally Constructed Tyrannies in Dramas of William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Joanna Baillie. Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press, 1994.

Proposes that Count Basil and De Monfort challenge the ideology that enslaves women.

———. “The Sexual Politics of The Election: French Feminism and the Scottish Playwright Joanna Baillie.” Intertexts 2, no. 2 (fall 1998): 119-30.

Portrays Baillie's play The Election as a commentary on the sexual politics of the day.

———. “Socialized and Medicalized Hysteria in Joanna Baillie's Witchcraft.” Prism(s) 9 (2001): 139-56.

Examines the role of medicine and psychiatry in Baillie's work.

Slagle, Judith Bailey. Joanna Baillie: A Literary Life, Madison, N.J.: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002, 328 p.

Traces Baillie's life and work against the backdrop of Scottish society and its treatment of women.

Additional coverage of Baillie's life and career is contained in the following sources published by Thomson Gale: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 93; Literature Resource Center; Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 71; and Reference Guide to English Literature, Ed. 2.