Women’s Writing as a distinctive genre:
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**Give
a short note on the contribution made by the women writers of Restoration
period with special reference to Ketherine Philips, Anne Killigrew, Mary Astel
and Aphra Behn.
Ans:-
During the Restoration period, we find a host of women writers
who paved the path of the great English novelists and enrich the art of English
literature by contributing significantly.
Anne
Killigrew(1660-1685):
Anne Killigrew showed her talent of novel writing and her
building genius was cut short by smallpox. She exhibited her talent in a world
that was largely dominated by male writers, their principles, prejudices and
images.
She was the daughter of a
well-connected royalist clergyman and the niece of the famous playwrights
Thomas and Sir William Killigrew. She worked in the court as a maid of honour
where she was acquainted with the other women of talent and ambition.
In her over ambitious first
poem, ‘Alexandreis’ (published in
the posthumous collection of 1686), she prayed that her ‘frozen style’ might be
warmed by the poetic fire. Her next poem ‘To
The Queen’ bears the far more sophisticated address to ‘Mary of Modena’. Killigrew’s work is
essentially that of an amateur, aware of the high culture of court circles
surrounding her.
Katherine
Philips (1631-64):
Katherine Philips (also known as Orinda) seems to
Killigrew to be the model of women writer accepted by her literary peers and
the reading public alike. Her poetic work, ‘The
poems’ was highly praised by Henry Vaughan. In April (6), 1651, she wrote another book named, ‘L’ Amitie: To Mrs. M. Awbrey’ with metaphysical strain comparable
with that of John Donne. She writes of two souls grown by an incomparable
mixture. One of her poems in the memory of her dead child Hactor, ‘On the death of my
first and dearest child’ bears her deep sorrow.
In her short life, her name and fame were enhanced by her
successful translation of the beautiful tragedy of ‘Corneille’s- La Mort De Pompee’ performed in Dublin and London in 1663. At the time of her death, she
lifted an incomplete version of the same dramatist’s ‘Horace’ (completed by John
Denham and acted in 1668). Both translations were printed after her death, ‘Poems by the most deservedly admired Mrs.
Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda’ in 1667.
Mary
Astell (1666-1731):
Mary Astell was the pioneer feminist novelist of the
Restoration Period. Her best work ‘A
Serious Proposal to Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest’
(1694) argues that the unmarried women of the upper and middle classes
should use their dowries to establish accommodation for widow, establish
colleges etc that will serve both institution and shelter of the old women.
The second part of ‘A
Serious Proposal’ (1697) advocates to women’s intellectual development. Her
next work- ‘Some Reflections upon
Marriage’ (1700) was women of the seriousness of committing themselves to
the tyranny of a husband.
Her poems collection ‘Ambition’
was published in 1684. In this poem,
she asserts the spiritual right of the women. In January 1688, she composed another poem called ‘The Motto’.
Mrs.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689):
One of the earliest English women to write fiction was Mrs.
aphra Behn who lived her early life in India and later on at Antwerp before she settled in England.
Mrs. Aphra Behn was the first professional woman writer of the Restoration
Period in England. The 20th century poet Virginia Woolf opinioned
that Mrs. Aphra Behn was the first professional woman writer in England.
Mrs. Aphra Behn had only a mediocre talent by circumstances
to write broad. Her first work was ‘Love-Letters between a Noble man and His sister
(1683). The book comprises a number of letters that were supposed to
have been written between a noble man and his wife’s sister who eloped with
him.
Mrs. Aphra Behn wrote three short stories- ‘The Adventure of the Black Lady’, ‘The unfortunate happy lady: a true history’
(1697), and ‘Court of king Bantom’.
The scene of all themes is London. They depict contemporary London
realistically.
In 1688, she wrote three stories- ‘Oroonoko: or the Royal Slave’, ‘The
Fair Jilt or Tarquin and Miranda’, and ‘Agnes de Castro; or, the Force of Generous Blood’. In these three
books Mrs. Aphra Behn anticipates Defoe.
Mrs.
Aphra Behn was also a playwright and her fame as a dramatist rest on: ‘The force’d marriage, or, The jealous bridegroom’, ‘the Round heads’ and ‘The Rover’.
Mrs. Aphra Behn continued novel
writing and produced- ‘The Lucky Mistake,
‘A Romeo and Juliet Story of the son and
daughter of Two counts in the city of Orleans.’.
Thus, these famous novelists contributed their writings and
talents in the Restoration Period.
God Bless you all.
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