Book contents
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Traditions and Breaks
- Chapter 1 Women Writers and Juvenal
- Chapter 2 Unlocking the Dressing Room
- Chapter 3 Aphra Behn and Traditions of Satire
- Chapter 4 Delarivier Manley
- Chapter 5 The Pleasures of Satire in the Fables of Anne Finch
- Part II Publicity and Print Culture
- Part III Moral Debates and Satiric Dialogue
- Appendix Selected List of Eighteenth-Century Women Writers and Their Satiric Works
- Selected Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 5 - The Pleasures of Satire in the Fables of Anne Finch
from Part I - Traditions and Breaks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2022
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Traditions and Breaks
- Chapter 1 Women Writers and Juvenal
- Chapter 2 Unlocking the Dressing Room
- Chapter 3 Aphra Behn and Traditions of Satire
- Chapter 4 Delarivier Manley
- Chapter 5 The Pleasures of Satire in the Fables of Anne Finch
- Part II Publicity and Print Culture
- Part III Moral Debates and Satiric Dialogue
- Appendix Selected List of Eighteenth-Century Women Writers and Their Satiric Works
- Selected Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Summary
In her poetry, Anne Finch employs fable to simultaneously distance herself from abusive satire, which she associates with lampoon, and produce reformative satire, or satire that addresses the shortcomings of society more generally in an effort to bring about the improvement of the culture-at-large. In spite of her purported aversion to lampoonery, however, Finch represents within several of her verse fables figurative satirists who abuse their targets without seeking to reform them. She does so not with a censorious tone designed to encourage readers’ disapproval but in a manner that emphasizes the figurative satirists’ pleasure, pleasure that emerges largely from reversals of power. Finch not only invites the reader to participate in this pleasure but appears to do so herself. As a writer of satirical fables, Finch engages critically with questions regarding what satire should be. At the same time, a number of her fables suggest her desire to engage in satire as she wishes it could be: an empowering personal attack with no repercussions.
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- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century , pp. 98 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022