The early life and London worlds of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, a poet performing in an age of sentiment and display.
Item
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Title
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The early life and London worlds of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, a poet performing in an age of sentiment and display.
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Identifier
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AAI3008844
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identifier
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3008844
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Creator
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Lawford, Cynthia Eve.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Fred Kaplan
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Date
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2001
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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Letitia Landon referred to her childhood often in her works, sometimes indirectly, such as when she wrote of being able to indulge in states of reverie in former times, states out of which, she seemed to believe, her best poems were conceived. Showing how intrinsic to Landon's character formation were her capacity to fantasize and her ambition to perform and exhibit these fantasies, Part One investigates Landon's early years, from birth up until the time of her writing The Improvisatrice in 1823, when she not yet twenty-two. Chapters One and Two examine all of the available facts on her complex relations with her parents, their changing financial circumstances, her education first at Rowden's school and then with her tutor and cousin, her lack of accomplishments, reading for pleasure, play with her brother, love of solitude, wilful temperament, and hero worship. After giving a detailed look at William Jerdan's shaping of the Literary Gazette, Chapters Three and Four focus on Landon's first publications in the magazine, especially the daringly experimental Poetic Sketches of 1822 that made L. E. L. the most popular poet writing for it. All aspects of Landon's relationship with Jerdan are set forth to give as accurate as possible an estimation of how their sexual affair began, paying particular regard to the role Landon's work played, including the poems from her first published volume, The Fate of Adelaide. Part Two's shorter chapters are concerned with Landon in society, beginning in Chapter Five with an attempt to address the problems thrown up by her (sometimes catty) denials of her work's authenticity at the parties and dinners she attended with frequency once The Improvisatrice (1824) had made her "a name." Landon's interest in the ever-changing tastes of the London public occupies Chapters Six and Seven. Chapter Nine studies her complex allegiance to middle-class gender norms. Chapters Eight and Ten discuss the significance of her fashion consciousness and of her devoted interest in the London theatrical scene, noting how in her work she employed notions of womanhood then prevailing in the worlds of fashion and melodrama.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
