The Seduction Narrative in Britain, 1747–1800

Abstract

Eighteenth-century literature displays a fascination with the seduction of a virtuous young heroine, most famously illustrated by Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and repeated in 1790s radical women's novels, in the many memoirs by fictional or real penitent prostitutes, and in street print. Across fiction, ballads, essays and miscellanies, stories were told of women's mistaken belief in their lovers' vows. In this book Katherine Binhammer surveys seduction narratives from the late eighteenth century within the context of the new ideal of marriage-for-love and shows how these tales tell varying stories of women's emotional and sexual lives. Drawing on new historicism, feminism, and narrative theory, Binhammer argues that the seduction narrative allowed writers to explore different fates for the heroine than the domesticity that became the dominant form in later literature. This study will appeal to scholars of eighteenth-century literature, social and cultural history, and women's and gender studies.

“Secrecy or Silence with Her Finger on Her Mouth”: Jeremy Bentham’s Other Model of Visibility and Power

“…Having examined Bentham’s Sotimion designs in detail, directly contrasting the residence with alternative institutions, such as the Magdalen Hospital, the boarding school that Bentham described in his panopticon letters, and Bentham’s poor plans, throws its distinctive nature into sharper relief. Scholars have characterized the Magdalen Hospital as a Foucauldian model of disciplinary surveillance presaging Bentham’s panopticon (Bataille 1997, 118; Binhammer 2009, 44), rendering the Sotimion’s departures from its practices more striking. Additionally, Bentham’s own discussions of how the panoptic design could be used to encourage women’s conformity with sexual norms suggest we should consider the Sotimion’s unique twist on panoptic architecture as a deliberate design choice.…”

“…It is possible that Bentham imagined more disciplinary rules and practices that he did not write into his notes, but we can only evaluate the explicit features of the Sotimion, which tend to distinguish it from the Magdalen Hospital in a manner consistent with Bentham’s criticisms of asceticism. To be admitted to the Magdalen, eligible applicants had to convince a committee of male governors that they were truly repentant; if a woman succeeded, she must “sign a form letter” further declaring her contrition (Binhammer 2009, 64–65). Alternatively, the Sotimion’s only definitive criterion for admittance would have been for all incoming residents to be “reported pregnant—that it may not be employd by men as a receptacle of kept mistresses” (UC cvii 102).…”