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Reviews / Comptes Rendus
| Nicole Pohl and Betty A. Schellenberg, eds., Reconsidering the Bluestockings (San Marino: University of California Press 2003)
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| NICOLE POHL and Betty A. Schellenberg's compilation of essays, Reconsidering the Bluestockings, makes a profound contribution to the depth of historical perspective on the Bluestockings. This collection presents a number of new ways of thinking about the Bluestockings through imaginative analyses that illuminate unexplored dimensions of the Bluestockings. A number of stories emerge from this collection that allow for the exploration of feminism, subjectivity, the body, sociability, political consciousness, and desire through the lens of the Bluestockings. In many ways, this collection reveals the fragmentation of the Bluestockings in their separate individual pursuits beyond the literary circle, their geographic distance, their differing interests, and their divided nature as individual subjects. This collection undoubtedly fulfills the aspect of Pohl and Schellenberg's vision of the Bluestockings as "an entity that functioned relationally" but does not clearly indicate how this was "collectively articulated." For the most part, the essays focus on the first generation of Bluestockings, with particular attention paid to Elizabeth Carter, Elizabeth Montagu, Sarah Scott, and Elizabeth Vesey. These essays either focus on an individual Bluestocking or on a relationship between two or three Bluestockings but devote little attention to how the Bluestocking Circle operated as a collective. This is an important consideration if one is to view the Bluestocking Circle as anything more than an arbitrary grouping of privileged literary women. |
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While this collection is to be commended for revealing the multifaceted character of the Bluestockings, it also reflects the limitations of England-centred accounts of the Bluestocking Circle. Although Pohl and Schellenberg allude to Montagu's visits to French salons, and the Bluestockings in Dublin, there is no attempt to consider how the Bluestockings may have envisioned their communication as transcending nation. A number of essays firmly root the Bluestockings in an England-centred narrative. For instance, Elizabeth Eger's "'Out rushed a female to protect the bard': The Bluestocking Defense of Shakespeare" argues that women's praise of Shakespeare allowed them to act politically by contributing to the construction of Englishness. Gary Kelly's "Clara Reeve, Provincial Bluestocking" reinforces the Englishness of the Bluestockings by defining Clara Reeve's identity as a Bluestocking through her old Whig politics. Emma Major's "The Politics of Sociability: Public Dimensions of the Bluestocking Millennium" further roots Bluestocking identity in the framework of English patriotism by arguing t h a t the Bluestockings' millennialism inextricably tied patriotic duty to Anglicanism. |
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Deborah Heller's essay hints at the possible implications of an exclusive focus on the Bluestockings in England. Her "Subjectivity Unbound: Elizabeth Vesey as the Sylph in Bluestocking Correspondence" poses the question of why Elizabeth Vesey as a symbol of the Bluestockings has not been given more attention by historians. One reason may be Vesey's Irishness and her Dublin-based literary circle. Heller argues that the Bluestockings' construction of Vesey as the 'Sylph', a mysterious figure that had extraordinary powers to transcend geographic distances, was a discourse available to the Bluestockings to articulate their transgression of gender roles. However, Heller's work is silent on the workings of the Dublin literary circle and its interaction with those in England. Heller also fails to suggest what Vesey's Irishness may have contributed to the representation of her as a mysterious Other and, therefore, fails to deeply contextualize Vesey's presence in Ireland. Related to the problem of reinforcing an England-centred account is the lack of a sufficient analysis of how metropolitan spaces could facilitate a network of circles. |
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This collection is particularly strong in its depiction of women's intellectualism and its meaning for the practical realities of women's lives. Elizabeth Child's "Elizabeth Montagu, Bluestocking Businesswoman" argues that Montagu's intellectual curiosity extended to the processes of coal-mining and her involvement in the economic activities of her husband's life were mutually reinforcing aspects of her identity. Montagu's inquisitive mind was stimulated by knowledge of coal-mining while her material wealth allowed her to provide patronage to scholars and comfortably pursue her own literary ambitions. Betty Rizzo's "Two Versions of Community: Montagu and Scott" argues t h a t the contrast between Montagu's vision of an intellectual gathering of the affluent and Sarah Scott's vision of a supportive female philanthropic group reflected the different ways that they understood their roles as women. Harriet Guest's "Bluestocking Feminism" argues that gender consciousness emerged among the Bluestockings because their dismissal of the political realm's corruption led them to assert their rightful presence in the literary realm. While these essays skilfully examine women's consciousness of their position in society, they significantly overlook how domestic relationships affected women's intellectualism. |
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Another significant oversight in this collection is the little attention devoted to emotionalism. There is a notable absence of a discussion as to how the Bluestockings reconciled their intellectual ambitions, commitment to conventional ideas of women's virtue, and the assumption of women's emotional and less rational nature. Jane Magrath's "'Rags of Morality': Negotiating the Body in the Bluestocking Letters" presents a fascinating look at the Bluestockings' construction of a gendered mind-body dualism. However, Magrath's analysis does not suggest the place of emotion in this equation. This is important given the high value attributed to emotionalism, sentimentality, and sensibility in the late 18th century. Susan Lanser's "Bluestocking Sapphism and the Economies of Desire" devotes considerable attention to desire. Lanser's work reacts to historians who have insisted on rejecting the association of Bluestockings with lesbianism. Lanser claims that the expression of desire needs to be considered in terms of a range of sexualities. One of the most important points Lanser makes is that historians tend to overlook feelings in their explanations of the past. One important oversight in Lanser's work is the issue of expressions of intimacy between men and women. If historians are to take the approach of conceiving of a range of sexualities seriously, then there needs to be equal attention devoted to intimacy between men and women in historical work on desire. |
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Not only should historical work on the Bluestockings address their intimate relationships but it should also consider the ways in which their scholarly activities were part of a sense of the possibilities of intellectual partnerships between men and women. Susan Staves's "Church of England Clergy and Women Writers" offers an insightful analysis of the supportive networks established between clergymen and the Bluestockings. This essay is the token contribution in the collection devoted to the issue of Bluestockings' intellectual cooperation with men. Missing from this collection is any sustained analysis of the meaning of masculinity and how it affected the nature of men's involvement in the Bluestocking Circle. Attention to masculinity would also deepen an understanding of how the Bluestockings positioned themselves within a gendered discourse of rationality. |
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Despite the oversight of key issues like the operation of the Bluestocking Circle as a collective, male-female intimacy, emotionalism, and masculinity, this collection successfully expands the possibilities for understanding the Bluestockings. More importantly, this collection generates further questions about the Bluestockings. For instance, it inspires a questioning of how the Bluestockings cultivated an intellectual image through material culture. How did fashion and consumerism play a role in construction of an intellectual image for men and women? The collection's considerable emphasis on the Bluestockings' incursions into the public sphere suggests the need for further attention to personal practices. |
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Carla Hustak
University of Toronto |
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