UPDATE: Mary Manley (6/1/03; collection)

full name / name of organization: 
joni goddard
contact email: 

Update: the deadline has been extended to June 1st 2003.

Call for Contributors for a forthcoming text entitled:
‘Scandalosissima Scoundrelia:’ A Collection of Critical Essays on Mary
Delarivier Manley

Edited by Joni Goddard, Mills College, Oakland CA

Mary Delarivier Manley (1663-1724) was a member of the group known as the
‘Fair Triumvirate of Wit’ which included controversial and popular women
writers Eliza Haywood and Aphra Behn. Manley was also one of the first
British women to earn a living by writing. She was a playwright and
novelist, known for her ‘secret histories,’ as well as the successor to
Swift’s Examiner. A dedicated Tory, much of her work was political
commentary disguised by romantic prose plots. Despite this tactic, one of
her texts resulted in her 1709 arrest for libel. Needless to say, she is
regarded, with Haywood as her successor, as one of “the shadowy forbears,
the ‘mothers’ of Pope’s own scandalous writing.” It is also noted that “in
freedom of speech she equalled the most licentious writers of comedy in that
generation.”

Some of her works include:
The Lost Lover - 1696
The Royal Mischief - 1696
The Secret History of Queen Zarah and the Zarazians - 1705
The Secret Memoirs ... of Several Persons of Quality - 1709
The New Atlantis - 1709
The Adventures of Rivella, or the History of the Author of Atlantis - 1714
Lucius - 1717
The Power of Love in Seven Novels – 1720
The Wife’s Resentment - 1720
A Stage Coach Journey to Exeter - 1725

This collection will be one of the first book length manuscripts on Manley.
I welcome a variety of theoretical and critical approaches on her work and
biography in relation to her work. Possible topics include, but are not
limited to; cultural/political impact, depictions of men and/or women,
feminist readings, class issues, use of romantic plots in political works,
connections between early and late work, etc.

Please send one page abstracts to:
Ms. Joni Goddard
1141 B Ozbourn Ct.
San Francisco, CA 94130

Feel free to contact me with any questions at jonigoddard_at_hotmail.com

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Received on Mon Mar 10 2003 - 01:52:42 EST