Aphra Behn and Susanna Centlivre: A Materialist-Feminist Study.

Only with the fa irly recen t adven t of Women's S tudies have attem pts been made to red iscover neglected works by female au thors . This d isserta tion examines the works of English playw rights Aphra Behn (1640-1689) and Susanna Centlivre (16691723) and th e uniquely female perception of th e Restoration and early e igh teen th cen tu ry they have left us. Both women wrote in tr igue comedies, among o th e r genres, within a generation of each other. Each made a rran g ed marriage fo r profit and the suffering i t caused women the primary ob ject of he r criticism and satire . But while the women shared a sex, nationality and vocation, not to mention a preoccupation with the r ig h ts of women, th e re a re s ignificant d ifferences in the way each handled the same elements. This s tu d y focuses on those d ifferences in fo u r areas: themes and conventions,. g en d er issues , portrayal of the same ch arac te r types and morality. After pinpointing th e d isparities using th e ir plays as primary evidence, a materialist-feminist methodology is utilized to explore the biographies of Behn and Centlivre and the e ras in which they wrote. This exploration attem pts to show how dissimilarities in both account fo r the d ifferences between the two canons. Since Behn was the f i r s t Englishwoman to make a living by writing plays, and Centlivre the most im portan t female p layw right in England until the twentieth cen tu ry , the s tu d y also documents the evolution of the female playw right in England until women tu rn ed to the novel as th e ir primary means of expression. The conclusion of th is work is th a t while superficially i t appears th a t Behn and Centlivre trod the same thematic path, im portant d ifferences exist in th e ir themes and how they t re a t them. These d isparit ie s can be a t t r ib u ted to the women's d iffe ren t lifes ty les and th e evolution of England from a quasi-medieval s ta te to a capitalistic, constitutional monarchy.