Image: Aphra Behn’s gravestone in Westminster Abbey
Referencing the idea that Aphra Behn (1640?-1689) was the first woman to earn her living as a writer, Virginia Woolf wrote in A Room of One’s Own that
All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn … for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. It is she — shady and amorous as she was — who makes it not quite fantastic for me to say to you to-night: Earn five hundred a year by your wits.
Woolf positions Behn as the first woman author; in this class, our reading of a wide range of Behn’s published work will enable us to critically analyze what “woman” and “author” meant in seventeenth-century England (as well as what Behn’s legacy has meant to readers since then). It will also let us consider how Behn’s writing engages with its social and political contexts, such as England’s rapidly expanding colonial power and increasing involvement in the transatlantic slave trade; shifting models of gender and sexuality; and the development of new scientific theories and practices. And just why did Woolf think Behn was “shady and amorous,” anyway? Join this class for an answer, as well as a fascinating window into a time of huge social and political change that has significant implications for our contemporary understandings of gender, sexuality, race, and imperialism.
Assignments will likely include reading responses, an annotation assignment, analysis of a scholarly article, and an essay.
This class will be offered fully in-person.
This course fulfils the pre-1700 historical breadth requirement!