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
- Part II Publicity and Print Culture
- Part III Moral Debates and Satiric Dialogue
- Chapter 10 Anne Finch, Anna Seward, and Women’s Relation to Formal Verse Satire in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 11 Satire as Gossip
- Chapter 12 “An invisible Spy”
- Chapter 13 Austen’s Menippean Experiments
- Appendix Selected List of Eighteenth-Century Women Writers and Their Satiric Works
- Selected Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 12 - “An invisible Spy”
Mary Robinson’s Sylphid and the Image of the Satirist
from Part III - Moral Debates and Satiric Dialogue
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
- Part II Publicity and Print Culture
- Part III Moral Debates and Satiric Dialogue
- Chapter 10 Anne Finch, Anna Seward, and Women’s Relation to Formal Verse Satire in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 11 Satire as Gossip
- Chapter 12 “An invisible Spy”
- Chapter 13 Austen’s Menippean Experiments
- Appendix Selected List of Eighteenth-Century Women Writers and Their Satiric Works
- Selected Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Summary
The chapter discusses Mary Robinson’s use of the spectator as a controlling satiric device in The Sylphid – a series of satirical essays published in the pages of the Morning Post 29 October 29, 1799 and January 31, 1800 which aim to expose the artificiality of society and ridicule contemporary fashions and characters. Scholarship on Robinson’s persona in The Sylphid has emphasized its importance in promoting Robinson as a free-ranging flâneuse, thus offering an alternative to the male gaze by challenging its authority and asserting the power of the female gaze. However, Sylphid’s gaze is not necessarily divested of the properties of the male gaze. The essay argues that Robinson employed the chief attributes of the spectator to construct her satirical persona: that is, the claim to objectivity, the properties of invisibility and shape-shifting, as well as the surreptitious surveillance of society whose secrets and flaws the spectator makes public knowledge. Figuring the spectator as an invisible spy not only helped Robinson advance her social satire and blur the boundaries between private and public, but also positioned her within the literary tradition of other satirical spectators, which further cemented her authority as a satirist.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century , pp. 226 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022