The Rhetoric of Self-Fashioning in the Works of Anna Cora Mowatt.

212 Pages·2017·6.37 MB·English

by  Kelly Shaver Taylor

LLoouuiissiiaannaa SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy
LLSSUU DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss
LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School
1994
TThhee RRhheettoorriicc ooff SSeellff--FFaasshhiioonniinngg iinn tthhee WWoorrkkss ooff AAnnnnaa CCoorraa
MMoowwaatttt..
Kelly Shaver Taylor
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses
RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn
Taylor, Kelly Shaver, "The Rhetoric of Self-Fashioning in the Works of Anna Cora Mowatt." (1994). LSU
Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5761.
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5761
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It
has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU
Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected].
INFORMATION TO USERS
This manuscript has been reproduced from the microrilm master. UMI
films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some
thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may
be from any type of computer printer.
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the
copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality
illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins,
and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete
manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if
unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate
the deletion.
Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by
sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and
continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each
original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in
reduced form at the back of the book.
Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced
xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white
photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations
appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly
to order.
UMI
University Microfilms International
A Bell & Howell Information Company
300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA
313/761-4700 800/521-0600 '
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Order Ni’tn.'ber 9502148
The rhetoric of self-fashioning in the works of Anna Cora
Mowatt
Taylor, Kelly Shaver, Ph.D.
The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical Col., 1994
U'M’I
300 N. Zeeb Rd.
Ann Aibor, MI 48106
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
THE RHETORIC OF SELF-FASHIONING
IN THE WORKS OF
ANNA CORA MOWATT
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
The Department of Speech Communication
by
Kelly S. Taylor
B.F. A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1984
M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1990
May 1994
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank my husband, John R. Taylor, and my major professor, Mary
Frances HopKins, for their tireless support and endless patience. Without them, this
document would never have been completed.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................................iv
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................1
2 BIOGRAPHY...............................................................................................23
3 FASHIONING THE CHARM :
THE RHETORIC OF ANNA CORA MOWATT’S
AUTOBIOGRAPHY...................................................................................41
4 SEDUCTIONS OF THE HALF-SEEN WORLD;
THE DEFENSE OF THE CREATED SELF IN ANNA CORA
MOWATT’S FICTION.............................................................................69
5 FEAR, LOATHING AND FASHION:
SELF CREATION IN ANNA CORA MOWATT’S
DRAMA.......................................................................................................97
6 EXPLOITING THE MEDIUM :
ANNA CORA MOWATT’S CREATION OF SELF THROUGH
PERFORMANCE.....................................................................................131
7 A FAIRY’S DREAM:
SELF-CREATION IN THE POETRY OF ANNA CORA
MOWATT..................................................................................................154
8 CONCLUSION........................................................................................173
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................................................................188
APPENDIXES
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF
ANNA CORA MOWATT.....................................................................195
B LISTING OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OCCURRING
DURING THE LIFETIME OF ANNA CORA MOWATT 196
C LISTING OF SELECTED AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN
CONTEMPORARIES OF ANNA CORA MOWATT IN
LITERATURE AND DRAMATIC ARTS.........................................199
VITA...................................................................................................................................202
111
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ABSTRACT
Anna Cora Mowatt (1891-1870), the subject of this study, was a nineteenth
century American author, actress, playwright, novelist, and poet. The purpose of
this study is to investigate the rhetoric of surviving artifacts of Mowatt’s life in order
to explore the ways in which Mowatt created a public self through these works.
Mowatt’s nonfictional Autobiography of an Actress, her novel Mimic Life, her
experience with mesmerism, her comedy Fashion, and her poem "My Life" are
examined in depth along with the context of each creation within contemporary
Victorian society.
The course of Mowatt’s self-fashioning was not smooth. She did not choose
a clear cut plan and follow it consistently. Her life and works reflect a constant
process of negotiation, sometimes even involving the simultaneous playing of
conflicting roles.
Mowatt was successful in her quest to create through rhetorical/textual
strategies an authoritative voice in her varied works. In these works, Mowatt
fashioned a public voice for herself without appearing to her auditors to be a
cunning, manipulative, usuiper of masculine power.
Stephen Greenblatt’s definition of the process of self-fashioning is used.
Self-fashioning is the process of shaping of a distinctive personality, a characteristic
address to the world, a consistent mode of behaving. The term "self-fashioning"
suggests representation of one’s nature or intention in speech or actions.
Appendices include a chronology of Mowatt’s life and career, a listing of
significant contemporary events and a selected list of contemporaries in Literature
and Drama.
IV
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie was a mid-nineteenth century American author,
public reader, playwright and actress, a well-known and respected figure among her
contemporaries in American literary and dramatic circles. Oral Interpretation scholars
have called her the first "lady" elocutionist because she was the first female to enter the
career of public reader without a previous career on the stage. In 1989, John Gentile,
writing a history of prominent solo performers, credited her along with famed actresses
Fanny Kemble and Charlotte Cushman with bringing to solo performance a level of
prestige previously unknown in America. He claimed that they, as respectable women
in a traditionally disrespected career, brought a respectability and an acceptance that
allowed women of a later age to enjoy professional platform careers. ^ Her brief career
as a public reader inspired many imitators.
Mowatt was also one of the first American women to achieve popular success as
a playwright. Mrs. Mercy Warren, Charlotte Lennox and Susan Rowson were among
her few forerunners. Her best remembered play, Fashion, was acclaimed by audiences
and critics alike. The comedy frequently appears in contemporaiy anthologies of
representative American dramas. Theatre historians mark Fashion as one of the first
successful efforts to create a distinctively American comedy of manners.^ Following
the success of Fashion. Mowatt reigned as one of the queens of American drama during
her eight year acting career.
1 John S. Gentile, Cast of One (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989) 25.
2 For further discussion of the significance of Fashion in the history of
American Drama see Arthur Hobson Quinn, A History of the American Drama: From
the Beginning to the Civil War (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1951)
309-310; Margaret G. Mayorga, A Short Historv of the American Drama (New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co., 1932) 145-147; and Montrose J. Moses, The American Dramatist
(Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1925) 102-106.
1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.