GENRE
Lady Mary's Letters fit under the genre of travel narrative as well as the area of familiar letters. Travel writing was not a genre reserved specifically to 18th century Britain. Its origins lie in travel books of antiquity such as those of Greek geographers Strabo and Pausanias. The Italian humanists of the 14th century, like Petrarch, took inspiration from classical works. Travellers like Marco Polo and Jacques Cartier inspired later Europeans in their transatlantic accounts of the “New World” (e.g.: Columbus influenced by Polo). The 18th century saw accounts of travelling to places like North America, Russia, the Continent (e.g.: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece), and the Orient. As the British empire expanded and its trade network grew, travel literature became a way to immerse oneself and engage in some sort of global discourse (Norton).
One of the types of travel literature were collections of familiar letters. The familiar letter was intended for a specific recipient so it required construction of a voice or a “self” (Lowenthal, 4). This constructed self meant that there was a constant self awareness. The “self”, portrayed through letters, became a consumable object as it was something to be displayed and marketed. Lady Mary’s self-awareness is intertwined with her understanding of the commodification of the female body. She describes the Turkish women and their bodies, clothes, and jewels are put on display. The reader, thus, becomes engaged in a sort of voyeurism.
The interest in travel narratives and the consumption of the collections of familiar letters is related to the development of the epistolary novel in the 18th century. The epistolary novel had become quite popular and circulated widely amongst women as a result of the surge in letter-writing. Women’s literacy had been increasing and letter writing became a form of private unmediated communication with other women (Potter, Feb. 11). Letters developed as a genre “for exploring one’s own subjectivity and opening one’s heart to others, as well as for projecting a powerful and emotionally wrought persona” (Duncan, 30). It is no surprise then to read the following in letters from Lady Mary to her sister:
One of the types of travel literature were collections of familiar letters. The familiar letter was intended for a specific recipient so it required construction of a voice or a “self” (Lowenthal, 4). This constructed self meant that there was a constant self awareness. The “self”, portrayed through letters, became a consumable object as it was something to be displayed and marketed. Lady Mary’s self-awareness is intertwined with her understanding of the commodification of the female body. She describes the Turkish women and their bodies, clothes, and jewels are put on display. The reader, thus, becomes engaged in a sort of voyeurism.
The interest in travel narratives and the consumption of the collections of familiar letters is related to the development of the epistolary novel in the 18th century. The epistolary novel had become quite popular and circulated widely amongst women as a result of the surge in letter-writing. Women’s literacy had been increasing and letter writing became a form of private unmediated communication with other women (Potter, Feb. 11). Letters developed as a genre “for exploring one’s own subjectivity and opening one’s heart to others, as well as for projecting a powerful and emotionally wrought persona” (Duncan, 30). It is no surprise then to read the following in letters from Lady Mary to her sister:
"The last pleasures that fell in my way was Madame Sévigné's letters: very pretty they are, but I assert, without the least vanity, that mine will be full as entertaining forty years hence. I advise you, therefore, to put none of them to the use of waste paper." |
“I writ to you some time ago a long letter, which I perceive never came to your hands: very provoking; it was certainly a chef d'oeuvre of a letter, and worthy any of the Sévigné's or Grignan's, crammed with news." |
The epistolary form was connected with two opposite impulses, the first being salacious voyeuristic narratives. One of the earliest epistolary novels was called The Lady’s Packet Broke Open (Potter, Feb. 11). It sold itself as a packet of letters fallen from a coach and found on the side of the road, then published in order to gain a glimpse into the private life of an aristocratic lady (Potter, Feb. 11). Works like this sold really well and managed a balance by being portrayed as autobiographical and also scandalous in some of the content. Because of their popularity amongst women, male writers wrote them as a way to provide a "good" moral example to instruct women's behavior (Potter, Feb. 11). Hence, the epistolary novel played a large role in dictating what was and what wasn't conventional. Travel literature shifts from that didactic tone but retains aspects of the constructed voice seen in the epistolary novel tradition.
Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister (1684): Aphra Behn wrote many epistolary novels and was one of the first novels to push the limits of the genre.
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Pamela (1740): A widely popular epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson-- written by a male but was first marketed as a book by a woman for women.
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Shamela (1741): A parody on Pamela, written by Henry Fielding. Eliza Haywood also satirized Pamela in a work called The Anti-Pamela; or Feign'd Innocence Detected. (Photo Credit)
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Lady Mary’s Turkish Embassy Letters may not be so scandalous in content about her personal life but they certainly resist 18th century stereotypes about women in the East. The male authors wrote about Turkish harems and the lives of the women without having actually interacted with them. For example, Robert Withers (translating Bon Ottaviano), in A Description of the Grand Signor’s Seaglio or Turkish Emperor’s Court, writes about women being punished in the harem (269). Lady Mary contests other writer’s accounts of the East because of their inability to access areas available to her because of her gender. Some facets of her writing were also challenged by other female writers she inspired like Julia Pardoe and Emmeline Lott (Grundy).