Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos

The first English translation of Lettres portugaises was published in 1678 as Five Love-Letters from a Nun to a Cavalier. Capitalising on its literary success, the nun’s letters were extended and revised in two sequels. Their influence on women’s autochthonous fiction was strong in the years that fo...

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Author: Villegas López, Sonia
Format: Article
Publication date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Huelva (UHU)
Repository:Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ariasmontano.uhu.es:10272/27291
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10272/27291
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Portuguese Letters
Love Letters
Stories of Nuns
Female Complaint
Passion and Excess
Aphra Behn
Delarivier Manley
Women’s Fiction
Seventeenth Century
6202 Teoría, Análisis y Crítica Literarias
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author Villegas López, Sonia
author_browse Villegas López, Sonia
author_facet Villegas López, Sonia
author_role author
collection Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
description The first English translation of Lettres portugaises was published in 1678 as Five Love-Letters from a Nun to a Cavalier. Capitalising on its literary success, the nun’s letters were extended and revised in two sequels. Their influence on women’s autochthonous fiction was strong in the years that followed. I will first focus on the history of the English reception of these French works to concentrate afterwards on two texts: Aphra Behn’s Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684-85) and Delarivier Manley’s Letters (1696). Whereas the former questions the veracity of the love letter by exploring the artificiality of love discourses and their dangerous effects on women’s lives, the latter recrafts the tradition of the female complaint by choosing a protagonist who voices her lament on the run. The reproducibility of the nun’s model makes us read Portuguese Letters not merely as the expression of unbidden emotion, but as a letter manual that could be revised and adapted.
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instname_str Universidad de Huelva (UHU)
language eng
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
oai_identifier_str oai:ariasmontano.uhu.es:10272/27291
publishDate 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Universidad de Murcia
publisherStr Universidad de Murcia
reponame_str Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
spelling Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos s Letter Fictions Villegas López, Sonia Portuguese Letters Love Letters Stories of Nuns Female Complaint Passion and Excess Aphra Behn Delarivier Manley Women’s Fiction Seventeenth Century 6202 Teoría, Análisis y Crítica Literarias The first English translation of Lettres portugaises was published in 1678 as Five Love-Letters from a Nun to a Cavalier. Capitalising on its literary success, the nun’s letters were extended and revised in two sequels. Their influence on women’s autochthonous fiction was strong in the years that followed. I will first focus on the history of the English reception of these French works to concentrate afterwards on two texts: Aphra Behn’s Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684-85) and Delarivier Manley’s Letters (1696). Whereas the former questions the veracity of the love letter by exploring the artificiality of love discourses and their dangerous effects on women’s lives, the latter recrafts the tradition of the female complaint by choosing a protagonist who voices her lament on the run. The reproducibility of the nun’s model makes us read Portuguese Letters not merely as the expression of unbidden emotion, but as a letter manual that could be revised and adapted. Universidad de Murcia https://hdl.handle.net/10272/27291
spellingShingle Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos
Villegas López, Sonia
Portuguese Letters
Love Letters
Stories of Nuns
Female Complaint
Passion and Excess
Aphra Behn
Delarivier Manley
Women’s Fiction
Seventeenth Century
6202 Teoría, Análisis y Crítica Literarias
title Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos
title_full Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos
title_fullStr Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos
title_full_unstemmed Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos
title_short Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos
title_sort Recrafting the Model of the Portuguese Nun in England: Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley&apos
topic Portuguese Letters
Love Letters
Stories of Nuns
Female Complaint
Passion and Excess
Aphra Behn
Delarivier Manley
Women’s Fiction
Seventeenth Century
6202 Teoría, Análisis y Crítica Literarias
topic_facet Portuguese Letters
Love Letters
Stories of Nuns
Female Complaint
Passion and Excess
Aphra Behn
Delarivier Manley
Women’s Fiction
Seventeenth Century
6202 Teoría, Análisis y Crítica Literarias
url https://hdl.handle.net/10272/27291