Aphra Behn (New Casebooks)

Aphra Behn's work has always been subject to critical fashion and her literary reputation was only really secured in the closing decade of this century, especially by new historicist and feminist critics. The essays collected here represent the best of a range of contemporary critical views, discussing both Behn's drama and her prose writings. Janet Todd provides a stimulating introduction mapping Behn' s literary reception, situating the works of the critics included in a broader literary context and pointing towards Behn as a newly politicized figure at the close of the twentieth century. JANET TODD is a Professor of English Literature at the University of East Anglia. A former fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and Professor at Rutgers University, she has also taught at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and the University of Puerto Rico. Acknowledgements.- General Editors' Preface.- Introduction; J.Todd.- Who Was That Masked Woman? The Prostitute and the Playwright in the Comedies of Aphra Behn; C.Gallagher.- Gestus and Signature in Aphra Behn's 'The Rover'; E.Diamond.- 'Suspect my loyalty when I lose my virtue': Sexual Politics and Party in Aphra Behn's Plays of the Exclusion Crisis, 1678-83; S.J.Owen.- Spectacular Death: History and Story in 'The Widow Ranter'; J.Todd.- 'But to the touch were soft': Pleasure, Power and Impotence in 'The Disappointment' and 'The Golden Age'; J.Munns.- Desire and the Uncoupling of Myth in Behn's Erotic Poems; C.Barash.- Gender and Narrative in the Fiction of Aphra Behn; J.Pearson.- Love-Letters: Engendering Desire; R.Ballaster.- Beyond Incest: Gender and the Politics of Transgression in Aphra Behn's 'Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister'; E.Pollak.- The Romance of Empire: 'Oroonoko' and the Trade in Slaves; L.Brown.- Juggling the Categories of Race, Class and Gender: Aphra Behn's 'Oroonoko'; M.Ferguson.- Further Reading.- Notes on Contributors.- Index.