Notes that although women dominated the English world of letters in the late 1700s, eighteenth-century women writers have been ignored by literary scholars and historians. Asserts that this discrimination in favor of the canonized Romantics, such as Blake and Wordsworth, excludes women Romantics' valuable and lively literary contributions. (MM)

Scholars and instructors of college writing may find that an examination of the literate sources behind Hugh Blair's bias for oral over written expression during the late 18th century gives perspective to their own teaching endeavors. The fact that there were many sources for Blair's own bias suggests that instead of the oral steadily giving way…

A study focusing on the history of reading, or the uses of literacy, in the first years of the American republic examined the subscription list and content of "The New York Magazine; or, Literary Repository" for 1790. Data for the study were taken from the magazine's subscription list and from various biographical sources, such as the…

The proposition can be offered that the notion of "the plant" should be the paradigmatic metaphor for modern conceptions of the composing process. Various forms of the metaphor are found in classical and eighteenth century writings alike. A modern shift in focus from writing product to process has brought to the fore the dynamic…

The first true English dictionary was Robert Cawdrey's "A Table Alphabeticall," published in 1604. Cawdrey's book may be seen as the result of a number of dramatic events that had occurred in the century and a quarter that preceeded it, including the widespread use of the Gutenberg press. Printing became so much easier and cheaper that…

The literary works of four American women who lived before 1900 deserve to be introduced, if not reintroduced, to the study of literature in the United States, because of their literary merit, variety, and valuable contributions to American literary history. In a journal edited from a diary kept during a round-trip horseback journey from Boston to…

The London Stage Information Bank (LSIB) is a machine-readable text of "The London Stage, 1660-1800," an 11-volume publication that contains information on plays, entertainments and afterpieces, casts, box-receipts, and contemporary comment compiled from playbills, newspapers, and theatrical diaries of the period. The LSIB can be…

The depth and peculiar nature of America's radical tradition in literature stand as achievements deserving special attention and renewed emphasis as the bicentennial celebration of the American Revolution approaches. This extensive and varied tradition--including poems, stories, novels, essays, sermons, journals, and letters--extends from the…

The expressionist theory of rhetoric, as presented in critical passages of selected eighteenth century texts, is examined in this essay. The introductory section of the essay discusses historical attitudes toward the relationship between grammar, logic, and rhetoric and points to the emergence and wide acceptance during the eighteenth century of…

The nature and scope of eighteenth century rhetoric were defined by three dominant taxonomies of knowledge. In the oldest taxonomy, which clung to the liberal arts tradition, rhetoric was seen as a means of achieving social dominance, and its distinctive characteristic was the exercise of control through persuasion. Treatises representing this…

Antebellum slave narratives can be valuable literary materials in four different kinds of literature courses. In a survey of American literature, slave narratives serve as records of the attitudes and activities of early Americans, as examples of travel literature, and as examples of late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century adventure…

To determine what messages women found in magazines regarding their roles in society in the late eighteenth century, a study analyzed three magazines: "The Ladies Magazine" (1792-93), "The American Magazine" (1787-88), and "The (Philadelphia) Weekly Magazine" (1798-99). All three featured a mixture of essays, verse,…

Although it is rare to see French literature in the French civilization syllabus, it is relatively easy to incorporate short stories into the course which allow for quick reading and discussion. It is best to choose the best writers, who communicate the spirit of the time in which they wrote, from the point of view of the artist rather than the…