Clara Reeve's The Progress of Romance (1785) is of very few literary historical works written in the dialogue form by female authors in the 18th century. Extending over two volumes The Progress of Romance is significant in several ways; both as a part of the rich British tradition of literary history writing and genre theory, and as a contribution to the tradition of female literary history which was initiated by Elizabeth Rowe and Susan Dobson earlier in the 18th century. Reeve writes about the general history of romance, and of its reputation and reception. But how does the fact that she is of the underrepresented sex in scholarly work of her time affect her text? Clara Reeve's The Progress of Romance (1785) is of very few literary-historical works written in the dialogue form by female authors in the 18th century.1 Extending over two volumes The Progress of Romance is significant in several ways both as a part of the rich British tradition of literary history writing and genre theory, and as a contribution to the tradition of female literary history which was initiated by Elizabeth Rowe and Susan Dobson earlier in the 18th century. Pamela Regis, in A Natural History of the Romance Novel (2007), points to the fact that Reeve's work influenced later writes, such as those of Sir Walter Scott and Nathaniel Hawtorne in the 19th century and Joseph Conrad in the 20th, and her view that Reeve has been more influential than is usually acknowledged is strengthened by references to, among others, Deborah Ross' The Excellence of Falsehood (1991). Reeve writes about the general history of romance, and of its reputation and reception. But how does the fact that she is of the underrepresented sex in scholarly work of her time affect her text?Reeve is mainly known as the authoress of The Old English Baron (1778), a Gothic romance which made her one of the pioneers of 18th century Gothic fiction. It is an imitation in the style of Horace Walpole's well-known Gothic romance The Castle of Otranto (1764). Challenging Walpole's authority, Reeve includes a component of commenting, improving and rivalry; it is in fact an imitatio in the Roman sense. Reeve's objections against The Castle of Otranto are few, but quite serious, and they are concerned with questions of probability. This is how she formulates it in the preface to The Old English Baron:[The Castle of Otranto] palls upon the mind [. . .]; and the reason is obvious, the machinery is so violent, that it destroys the effect it is intended to excite. Had the story been kept within the utmost verge of probability, the effect had been preserved, without losing the least circumstance that excites or detains the attention." (Reeve, 1778, p. vi) It is a commonplace amongst critics to claim that Reeve by this condemns all direct appearances of the supernatural in fiction and only allows for the suggestions of it, a view which was adopted by for example Ann Radcliffe.2 With the exception of taste when it comes to supernatural machinery, Reeve was a great admirer of Walpole.
Henrik Ibsen's first prose drama, Kejser og Galilaeer. Et verdenshistorisk skuespill (Emperor and Galilean. A World-Historic Drama, 1873), set in the fourth century, tells the story of Emperor Julian. Several critics have argued that, with Emperor and Galilean, Ibsen did not only forge history into a modern form, he also turned to history to say something essential about the emergence of a new world and about the complex landscape of ideas and politics distinguishing his own time. 1 The second half of the nineteenth century saw great changes in infrastructure, upheavals in society, and the rise and fall of several European kingdoms and empires, and Julia Walker draws attention to the recurring oppositions when she sums up Ibsen's project in Emperor and Galilean:Attempting to riddle out the puzzles of his own historical moment, Ibsen borrowed from Hegel to oppose society and the individual, state and church, reason and faith, old and new, flesh and spirit, "Hellenist" and "Nazarene," plotting the dialectical processes that propelled the Ancient world into the Modern era. (Walker 2014, 152
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