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Hoogstraaten, Michelle (2023)

Performance, Value, and Agency: Representations of Female Virginity in Richardson’s Pamela and Haywood’s Fantomina

Bachelor thesis | Engelse taal en cultuur (BA)
This thesis critically explores the published scholarship on the concept of eighteenth-century chastity, and examines how chastity and agency function within the literature by conducting a historically-informed close reading of Richardson’s Pamela and Haywood’s Fantomina. It demonstrates that the literary representations of virtue in these novels reveal the construction of virginity as a performance of an intangible concept that is economically valuable, and highlight the fact that virginity is intrinsically linked to the concept of agency.
Pamela
Fantomina
virginity
eighteenth century
chastity
Author
Hoogstraaten, Michelle
Faculty
Faculty of Humanities
Specialisation
Literature
Supervisors
Rolfe, K.
ECTS Credits
10
Language
en