"Plain and Vulgarly Express'd": Margaret Cavendish and the Discourse of the New Science

Abstract

Although Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), did not belong to the scientific community which after 1660 formed itself around the Royal Society, several of the philosophical issues discussed there are reflected in her writings. Lengthy reflections on language and style which run through her philosophical worksprovide evidence that the linguistic and rhetorical debates of the early Royal Society also left their mark. The isolation which Cavendish faced as a woman writer obliged her to discuss problems of terminology and style even more intensively, thereby adhering to the rhetorical principle of perspicuity which Thomas Sprat demanded in his proposal for a scientific plain style. The influence of the New Science on Cavendish's work becomes obvious when her later writings are compared to her earlier ones where traces of a courtly and more elitist understanding of style can still be found. In this paper the development of Cavendish's stylistic attitudes is traced in several of her works, including her Utopian narrative The Blazing World (1666).

Margaret Cavendish. Escritura, Estilo Y Filosofía Natural

“…La aristocracia de Cavendish, sus medios sociales y económicos, salvaron su filosofía de la desaparición histórica y, al mismo tiempo, la convirtieron en una incomodidad y símbolo de descrédito e inferioridad femenina para los científicos de la renombrada Royal Society. Si bien, como lo muestra Jonathan Nate (2001), se puede notar en el desarrollo de sus obras una progresiva influencia del estilo plano, claro, y libre de todo elemento ficcional y adorno estilístico defendido por la Royal Society, Cavendish siempre estableció diversos frentes y aproximaciones estilísticas a sus posturas físicas. Tal es el caso de su obra más tardía, "Observaciones sobre filosofía experimental" (en adelante será citado: "Observations"), una obra de carácter sobrio, plano y fuertemente argumentativo.…”

A Bibliography of Works Published in the History of Professional Communication from 1994–2009: Part 1

“…Women scientific writers of the period have also received some attention. Richard Nate, in "'Plain and Vulgarly Express'd" (2001) [114], argues that, while Margaret Cavendish as a woman could not be a member of the Royal Society, her later writings express many of the rhetorical principles of this group, and Denise Tillery, in "'English Them in the Easiest Manner You Can': Margaret Cavendish on the Discourse and Practice of Natural Philosophy" (2007) [115], evaluates the rhetoric of science that Cavendish developed that in some ways opposed the principles of the Royal Society. Henrietta N. Shirk, in "Contributions to Botany" (1997) [116], evaluates the effectiveness of two 18th-century women botanists, Elizabeth Blackwell and Priscilla Bell Wakefield; and Daniel J. Philippon, in "Gender, Genus, and Genre" (2001) [117], examines the nature writing of three 18th-century American women: Eliza Lucas Pinnckney, Martha Daniell Logan, and Jane Colden Farquhar.…”

“I'm not a feminist but … ” : Liberatory Approaches to Teaching Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World

“…These principles were in opposition to scholasticism and espoused a less elitist approach to expository writing. 17 Both articles highlight the complexity and conscientiousness with which Margaret Cavendish was engaged with early modern intellectual trends and debates, and they both suggest approaches to unravelling this complexity for undergraduate students.…”