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‘My brain is on fire!’ Anglican Womanhood and the Limits of Politeness in Frances Burney's Cecilia
Author(s) -
Waterfield Daniel
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/1754-0208.12587
Subject(s) - politeness , sociology , plot (graphics) , courtesy , gender studies , law , political science , statistics , mathematics
The influence of courtesy literature on Frances Burney's Cecilia (1782) has been well documented. Yet the question of religion remains overlooked. This article both reasserts the Anglican nature of Cecilia's behaviour and asserts the Catholicism of the Delvile family. It argues that Cecilia constitutes a sustained engagement with the Gordon riots of 1780 and critiques the utility of female politeness as a social glue. In a romance plot that reflects contemporary legal attempts to reconcile Britons after centuries of religious warfare, Burney ultimately suggests that politeness lacks the vocabulary with which to confront social and economic inequalities.