Gordis
ENG BC3179x

READING THE COQUETTE

Many of you will open this text with relief. It is, after all, a novel, and an easier read than many of the very difficult texts with which you’ve wrestled so valiantly throughout the term. Moreover, it’s an interesting novel, and it addresses a number of issues that we’ve been discussing in recent weeks. Please read Cathy Davidson’s very fine introduction to the text; our discussion on Monday will assume familiarity with the information presented there and with Davidson’s argument. I recommend, however, that you read the novel first, and read Davidson’s essay only after you’ve formed your own impressions of the text.

As you read, consider this text in relation to the texts that we’ve been discussing over the course of the semester. How does Foster’s treatment of courtship and marriage compare to what we’ve seen earlier? For example, how does the picture of courtship in this novel compare to Tyler’s representation of courtship in The Contrast? Is Foster’s America as fertile a place as Barlow’s is? (Pay attention to the fates of the various babies in the text.)

More broadly, consider what it means to be a good citizen in this text. Linda K. Kerber writes in Women of the Republic: Intellect & Ideology in Revolutionary America that

In the years of the early Republic a consensus developed around the idea that a mother, committed to the service of her family and to the state, might serve a political purpose. Those who opposed women in politics had to meet the proposal that women could–and should–play a political role through the raising of a patriotic child. The Republican Mother was to encourage in her sons civic interest and participation. She was to educate her children and guide them in the paths of morality and virtue. But she was not to tell her male relatives for whom to vote. She was a citizen but not really a constituent.¹

To what extent does The Coquette reflect this idea? How does Foster represent the duties of citizenship for women, and does she suggest that being a good female citizen is different from being a good male citizen? To what extent is female citizenship in this novel tied to motherhood? How does Foster’s idea of citizenship resemble or differ from Franklin’s ideas? How does the political activity of Foster’s female characters compare with the political engagement of Abigail Adams’s letters? Similarly, what does liberty mean in this text? Does it mean the same thing that it does for, say, Winthrop? Do you hear any echoes of A Modell of Christian Charitie in this text, or are we in an entirely new sphere of discourse?

Consider as well the functions of reason and rhetoric in this text. What seduces Eliza? Does she fall to grand passion? Is seduction figured only in terms of sexual attraction? What kind of warning does this text offer its readers? And who seems to be the intended reader of this text?

Consider Foster’s use of the epistolary form. What impact does the use of letters to tell this story have on our understanding of the characters and plot? Does the epistolary form resist closure? Also, watch closely what happens to Eliza’s voice as the novel progresses.

The schedule of readings includes links to newspaper accounts of Eliza Whitman (see also here and here), on whom Eliza Wharton is thought to be based. I encourage you to compare Foster's novel with these materials, but once again, I recommend that you read the novel first.

        ¹Linda K. Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect & Ideology in Revolutionary America (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1980) 283.