pamela
Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel Richardson.
Histories of Writing, Reading, and Publishing
This is the course website for "Histories of Writing, Reading, and Publishing," a course taught by Dr. Williams in Fall 2004 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Links
- Syllabus (PDF)
- Online Discussion Schedule
- Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing
- pamela
- pamela
- pamela
- the dunciad, books 1 and 2
- the business of print
- johnson's "lives of the poets"
- samuel johnson on richard savage
- darnton to speak in kc
- response to student feedback
- the nature and history of reading
5 Comments:
Samir's Questions:
Richardson wrote this novel with the hopes of being an advocate for good moral fiber. However, was Richardson also trying to speak out in other, more political ways as well? Through the mindset of his characters, was he trying to reveal more glaring issues of the day? Discuss how Richardson touched upon things such as class struggle, women's equality, etc. Also, do you see any more that exist throughout the novel?
Samir's Questions
Question 2:
Richardson chooses an interesting tactic by portraying the thoughts of Pamela first through a series of letters, then later through personal reflection. Through your understanding of previous writings we have read in this course, how would these classify Pamela as an author? Would Johnson approve of her as a biographer? Would Foucault see her as an author? Briefly describe how the experts would analyze the persona known as "Pamela."
1. It is difficult to know the author's intentions when they write a work. However he did portray glaring issues of the day when he showed class struggle, and the treatment of women at that time in history. I don't know his stand on these things,but it is diffucult to read. When for instance Mr. B. has Pamela "imprisioned" with the inn keeper. Richardson shows that women servants had no power over their situations. Still he seemed to show through his charaters the good and bad sides of both of the classes. He didn't paint one class as better than the other. And he did try to convey that Pamela is as good or better person then any of her peers with wealth. Class strugle and women's equality(or lack there of) are the only issues I see that Richardson dealt with.
2. I don't think Pamela would be accepted as a creditable author. I think given the diffuculty that Richardson had as passing this story off as simply a moral story tells much about what they would say about Pamela (and the social conscieness of the people of that time). If she was to try to call this novel fiction no one would believe her, or the story. If she was to try to call this novel non-fiction no one would believe her story. Her name as an author function would be laughed at. And I think this for the simple fact that she is female, and obviously by the peoples reaction to this story, they didn't think this was a buyable plot (they believed she was trying to seduce Mr.B.). This novel certinly would not have been as successful,or as well recieved.
I found Thomasena's answer interesting, because I just read something, on a samuel richardson web site where is was mentioned that Mr. B exerted his control over Pamela as well has her body, and used the example of when he refused to let her breastfeed. I thought this was rather interesting, and looked at more stuff on the internet; what I found was that this was really a recurring theme amoung contemperary scholars. The web-site was www.users.muohio.edu/mandellc/mccrac/novel.htm. My own thoughts are this: Richardson was more obvious (in my opinion) when touching on women's rights and class issues especially because of the force Mr. B exerted over Pamela in multiple and various situations, as well as the fact of Pamela being from a lower class and "marrying up."
question 2: I think the tactic of beginning with the letters, and then doing personal reflection later in the book is a very clever and useful one. My speculation is that by starting with the letters it makes the story of Pamela more real to richardson's audience. The fact is that publication of letters was fairly common as we have discussed in class, and by presenting the first part of the novel in letter form it gives the readers of Pamela a certain amount of familiararity. Then, once the readers have become involved with the discourse in the book and their interest has been captivated, Richardson can then switch to a style (pamela's refelction)that would previously have been less captivating to some readers (based on the fact that Pamela is a female, and a female author would probably by less accepted). We also see this tactic used later which suggests a certain amount of success.
I found Thomasena's answer interesting, because I just read something, on a samuel richardson web site where is was mentioned that Mr. B exerted his control over Pamela as well has her body, and used the example of when he refused to let her breastfeed. I thought this was rather interesting, and looked at more stuff on the internet; what I found was that this was really a recurring theme amoung contemperary scholars. The web-site was www.users.muohio.edu/mandellc/mccrac/novel.htm. My own thoughts are this: Richardson was more obvious (in my opinion) when touching on women's rights and class issues especially because of the force Mr. B exerted over Pamela in multiple and various situations, as well as the fact of Pamela being from a lower class and "marrying up."
question 2: I think the tactic of beginning with the letters, and then doing personal reflection later in the book is a very clever and useful one. My speculation is that by starting with the letters it makes the story of Pamela more real to richardson's audience. The fact is that publication of letters was fairly common as we have discussed in class, and by presenting the first part of the novel in letter form it gives the readers of Pamela a certain amount of familiararity. Then, once the readers have become involved with the discourse in the book and their interest has been captivated, Richardson can then switch to a style (pamela's refelction)that would previously have been less captivating to some readers (based on the fact that Pamela is a female, and a female author would probably by less accepted). We also see this tactic used later which suggests a certain amount of success.
Josh
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