Kara Griffith and Guenevere Matteson

Dr Morillo

ENG 563: Team Lit Review

18 February 2010

Annotated Bibliography for Roxana

Conway, Alison. "Defoe's Protestant Whore." Eighteenth-Century Studies 35.2 (2002): 215-33. JSTOR. Web. 27 Jan 2010.

Conway situates Roxana within a historical context in order to shed further light on certain nuisances of the novel. She initiates her discussion with an examination of the social pressures and characterization of the historical figures the consort to Charles II, Nell Gwyn; Gwyn’s financial advisor Robert Clayton; and the Restoration period. Conway argues that the emptiness represented in the figure of the “Protestant whore” as both revealed in Roxana’s question “What am I a whore for now?” and the “cipher of public admiration” (5) of Nell Gwyn reflect “Protestantism’s sense of desolation in the Restoration” (6). This emptiness is revealed particularly by Roxana’s consuming vanity. She argues that the underlining drive of Roxana’s narrative is the desire for self-recognition as revealed both in Roxana’s own character and in the character of her daughter, Susan. Susan, too, is caught up in a self-destructive search for recognition in the form of acknowledgement by her mother. Conway cites Defoe’s appropriations of the Protestant conversion narrative and courtesan biography to discuss England’s national anxiety related to the King’s ambivalence toward the national religion, revealed in his consorting with and in turn being subject to French and Catholic influences, and, related to this, the search for an English national spiritual identity. By evoking Nell Gwyn, however, Defoe appears to be relating that this search is not tied up in a single spiritual or moral exploration of self, but tied directly to the “gendered and embodied status of the individual that responds to the question” (11). This essay is an interesting discussion of the historical influences of Roxana and the details of the novel that reveal these influences. It also provides a relevant discussion of the tensions in some of Defoe’s other works including Moll Flanders, Robinson Crusoe and Journal of the Plague Year.

Crane, Julie. "Defoe's Roxana: The Making and Unmaking of a Heroine." Modern Language Review 102.1 (2007): 11-25. JSTOR.Web. 27 Jan 2010.

Crane uses deconstruction to examine how Defoe uses the narrative technique to both constructing Roxana’s story while also erasing it. She initiates this discussion with a comparison of the narrative voices in Roxana to Journal of the Plague Year. She argues that the novel is filled with alternate voices and stories which Roxana struggles to dominate but ultimately fails. Crane states that “it is as though Defoe gives up on this heroine, hands her over to her most hideous fears, the most terrible of which is that of sliding into obscurity, of being a half-forgotten story among others” (15). Crane cites Amy, for instance, as a voice that begins to dominate the narrative using the example of the two women caught in the storm as evidence. She argues that due to the slippage of language, Amy’s voice fills in gaps created by Roxana’s inability to integrate her desires for independence and acceptance. She also explores Roxana’s character through comparisons to Moll Flanders and Robison Crusoe who she believes have more successfully integrated their individuality with the standards of society. Roxana, in contrast, creates an ever-widening gap between herself and societal norms until she is left the most isolated of any of Defoe’s characters. Crane argues that it is into this gap that Roxana’s story ultimately disappears. Crane’s use of textual evidence to support some of her claims reveals a questionable interpretation of the events of the novel that suggests, to me, that she may not have closely examined the text. While her thesis is interesting and many of her points valid, it is distracting that her interpretation of some of the events described within the novel are too easily argued.

Griffin, Robert J. "The Text in Motion: Eighteenth-Century Roxanas." ELH 72.2 (2005): 387-406. Print.

Griffin’s article is more of a challenge to his readers to consider textual criticism than an argument. Griffin begins the article discussing the ambiguity surrounding the ending of Roxana. He argues that literary criticism has been ignoring textual evidence surrounding the end of the novel. He states that “the publication history of Roxana shifts our attention from thinking about closure in narrative to thinking about closure in relation to the mode of existence of a text, which I will argue is continually in motion” (390). Griffin explains that there are seventeen known editions of Roxana in the eighteenth century. Many of the editions have extreme variations, including a 1740 edition that has a 150-page extension. This version gives the novel a happy ending and “explains how Roxana died peacefully and in charity with all the world” (394). Defoe, himself, changed some of the editions, and other editions were edited or altered by known or anonymous authors. Griffin argues that a problem with modern criticism is the divorce between literary criticism and textual criticism. Modern criticism has ignored the other editions because they do not come “under the sign of the author” (398). This historical background can “alter our perception of this material, and thus alter our sense of literary and cultural history is radical ways”(398). Unfortunately, Griffin leaves off before explaining what these radical ways are. The article allows the reader to think through the value of textual criticism; however the reader must first wade through a lengthy summary of Roxana, as well as, lengthy explanations of various critics whom Griffin does not tie back into his argument. He then leaves the reader without connecting the value of textual criticism with his historical information.

Karras, Ruth Mazo. Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England. New York: Oxford U P,1996. 221. Print.

Mentioned in the footnotes of Roxana, this book is an in-depth discussion of the sexuality of women in the medieval period.  Karras looks at historical records to examine a variety of issues related to prostitution in this period.   Using historical documents she argues that “prostitution deeply affected gender elations because its existence fostered the connection of feminine sexuality with venality and sin, and thereby justified the control of all women” (3).  Karras looks at the definition of prostitution, and how legal and social systems set up around prostitution both forced women into this work and functioned to keep them there.  Karras discusses the social strata within the trade and using information from journals, what steps these women (and men) took to protect themselves.  She looks at how family structure and marriage affected a women’s sexuality, as well as, the church’s efforts with regard to prostitution.   Her conclusion is a discussion of the effect that capitalism had on gender relations and the effects of prostitution. This book gives an interesting background for questions related to Roxana’s choices in Defoe’s novel.

Kibbie, Ann Louise. "Monstrous Generation: The Birth of Capital in Defoe's Moll Flanders and Roxana." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 110.5 (1995): 1023-34. Print.

Kibbie addresses the use of usury in Defoe’s novels Roxana and Moll Flanders. She argues that the eighteenth century was a time of great economic change, and with the rise of capitalism, the former perception of the despicable usurer in Elizabethan literature was also changing. The concept of usury did not disappear in literature but “the evolving discourse of capitalism transformed this hostile theory, incorporating some of the less familiar tropes of the antiusury tradition, such as analogies between biological and monetary generation”(1023). Kibbie goes on to argue that Moll Flanders and Roxana are novels “in which biological reproduction is explicitly bound up with capital increase” (1024). She cites numerous contemporary writers of Defoe who personify capitalism as a childbearing woman or as a whore. Kibbie parallels Moll and Roxana’s sexual exploitations and childbearing with their economic gain, and ties the two together. Kibbie’s argument for Moll Flanders is compelling; however, her examples from Roxana lack the depth that she went into with Moll Flanders. This article would be an excellent jumping point for someone wishing to further pursue the subject, specifically for the novel, Roxana. Her argument is clearly stated and the article is well written and assessable to undergraduate and graduate students.

Maurer, Shawn Lisa. "'I Wou'd be a Man-Woman': Roxana's Amazonian Threat to the Ideology of Marriage." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 46.3 (2004): 363-86. Print.

Maurer argues that while that the two dominant arguments for Roxana’s downfall are either attributed to her sexual immorality or her economic greed, the actual cause of Roxana’s downfall “is her desire for economic existence independent of men” (364). Maurer uses the comparison of Roxana and the Amazonian to reflect the cultural fear of female independence. Roxana’s independence shakes the roles designated to men and women in the eighteenth century, as well as, nullifies the patrilineal succession given to children born within a marriage. The remainder of the article is divided into two sections “Not Bred to Work: Domestic Economy, Economic Passivity” and “The Laws of Matrimony: Sexual Subversions of Marriage Contract.” In the first section, Maurer explains that Roxana was not born fierce and independent, but her lack of economic control in her marriage forced her into poverty. With the rise of the middle-class, the division of labor was established, which relegated women to the home, in contrast to earlier centuries where women and men toiled side by side within a rural setting. Maurer claims that the occupation of Roxana’s husband, the Brewer, serves as a reminder of the division of labor that paralyzed women. Prior to the eighteenth century, “brewing was one of the trades previously dominated by women that had been turned over to men in the course of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries” (371). With the loss of her first husband and her descent into economic poverty, Roxana is reborn into a “Man-Woman.” The latter subject of the article deals with the paralyzing nature of the laws of marriage. Defoe is sympathetic towards Roxana and seems “even to justify Roxana’s subsequent desire for independence and control, but the novel instead works powerfully and unremittingly against such acceptance”(373). While Roxana may have many character flaws, Maurer argues that the one that brings her down is her resistance of matrimony. Maurer’s article is lengthy but readable and well articulated. She draws strong textual evidence supporting her claims.

New, Peter. "Why Roxana can Never Find Herself." The Modern Language Review 91.2 (1996): 317-29. MLA. Web. 27 Jan 2010

New explores the creation of Roxana’s character by Defoe. He divides his argument into four parts. The first part looks at a few of Defoe’s title characters, Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders and Roxana, and identifies trends in Defoe’s writing in terms of character development. He identifies the drives for both freedom and security as major tensions within Defoe’s writing, which often pull his characters in conflicting directions. He also identifies the narrative element in Defoe’s writing as the major source of characterization, and using Locke, he supports the argument that Defoe’s characters are specifically defined by what they do and in order to provide a continuous personal history they must take responsibility for their actions. In the second part of his argument, New identifies specific moments in the text that support this argument. The third part of the argument looks at characters that represent Roxana’s “doubles.” He identifies Amy as a character able to carry out Roxana’s base desires and through her, Roxana is able to both voice her lowest desires and disown them. The Quaker, on the other hand, is Roxana without the experiences that Roxana wishes she could disown. The two characters represent a split in Roxana’s consciousness between the attractions to freedom and security he identifies earlier. New finally asserts that Roxana can never fully integrate these two aspects of her personality because they are present in a way that makes them mutually exclusive in her consciousness. This article provides some thoughtful insights on the characters of the novel but does raise the question, in my mind, of what to make of the figure of the Quaker with respect to Defoe’s own religious position.

Wright, Celeste Turner. “Some Conventions Regarding the Usurer in Elizabethan Literature.” Studies in Philology 31.2 (1934): 176-197. Print.

At the time of publication, Wright notes that the studies regarding the figure of the “usurer” have been largely confined to Elizabethan drama. She expands this research into non-dramatic literature, specifically in the writings of the moralists. Wright goes on to give many examples of the usurer in Elizabethan literature. She cites Thomas Wilson, Marlowe, and some Puritan writings. Typical characteristics ascribed to the usurer in Elizabethan literature are: he is an old man he is diseased, and is often a Jew. He is known for a voracious appetite but will often starve himself in front of others. Along with these physical attributes, Wright notes that “it was decreed that the wretch, if unrepentant, should come to an appropriate end” (192). The idea of usury was also associated with the sin of Avarice, which is listed as one of the seven most deadly. Wright gives no further background into the character of the usurer, but the article is an interesting look at the literary figure of the usurer and can be used to situate the eponymous figure of Roxana.