Final exam on literature

genre and gender could be seen to be connected. Indeed, one could argue – as George Eliot did in the 1850s – that women authors could successfully turn to novel writing precisely because this genre, as opposed to genres like the epic, was relatively new, with few formal rules and a short tradition almost entirely accessible in English

There was often also much suspicion about the moral consequences that could arise from the treatment of certain subject matters as well as the publicity and financial benefits involved in female writing. Alexander Pope applies moral double standards when he expresses special outrage at “those shameless scribblers” who not only write “libellous Memoirs and Novels” but are also “for the most part of That sex, which ought least to be capable to such malice or impudence” — that is, women. The image of the