Final thought

Again while doing some reading relating to Clarissa, I found an article that peaked my interest. It comments on or covers in some depth several of the ideas we brought up in class and the ideas that were most controversial for Richardson.
The article gives examples of readers' response to the novel' lack of poetical justice and offers explanations in Richardson's own words of what he thought of poetical justice and whether or not it was relevant to the type this particular novel.
In addition the article also suggested that Richardson disliked the emotional response and the attachment readers formed to the fictional characters. Most importantly he was not interested in invoking any emotional response simply more concerned with conveying the overall lesson of virtue. The author also goes into detail about why Richardson knew Clarissa must die and what he hoped to gain through her death, In addition it also illustrates Richardson's need to make this novel as different from Pamela as possible. To show a different type of reward for virtue even at the cost of his readers' disappointment

My favorite tidbit of information is a quotation which states "For it was not through the force of Clarissa's death that he intended to move readers to virtue. Rather Richardson wanted to emphasize the pointedly less emotive reformation of Clarissa's first reader , Clarissa's chosen editor, and Richardson's envisioned male hero, John Belford."

anyway a very informative article overall and includes letters from readers and Richardson's views on tragedy and how he related his novel to a more modern style of tragedy.
If EVER you are interested in reading more about points we left open in class this article helps resolve some questions (at least foe me) so I hope you check it out even if it is just a glimpse.

Adam Budd-author
Why Clarissa Must Die:Richardson's Tragedy and Editorial Heroism -title
Project Muse -available via search on clio

Going postal

Richardson makes an appearance amidst John Mullan's thoughts on a recent epistolary novel by Lionel Shriver.

Richardson in Death

Considering Clarissa's concern for her own death, I was intrigued by Samuel Richardson's fascination with his death and burial.  Though it appears his tombstone has been rubbed to the point of illegibility, these pictures indicate a simplicity of design.  The last picture is actually of a Massachusetts man, Samuel Richardson, whose headstone is more ornate.  It is merely offered in contrast.

Richardson in Polite Conversation

I thought you all might be interested in an article concerning Richardson in a book of Eighteenth Century "Table Talk."  

What's in a name?

I thought since I may have missed a posting in the past, I would make up for it with an extended post today. Here I'm hoping to perhaps flesh out some more possible ideas on names, identity, and psychoanalysis that I raised in the presentation today. 

Ian Watt, in particular, is useful in understanding more broadly the significance of naming in Clarissa. The Rise of the Novel's introduction is interesting in how it suggests that the novel presents a sharp break with literary history when it comes to names:

Characters in previous forms of literature were usually given proper names; but the kind of names actually used showed that the author was not trying to establish his characters as completely individualised entities...The early novelists, however, made an extremely significant break with tradition, and named their characters in such a ways as to suggest that they were to be regarded as particular individuals in the contemporary social environment. (25)

The second argument that I find compelling is the use of names as they relate to the titles of novels, and the argument on sexual inequality. From "The Naming of Characters in Defoe and Others": 

The use of a single, Christian name for women, but of a full name for men is part of a tacit discrimination between the sexes which is traditional in the novel, and which is reflected in the traditional novel-title. Against Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, Sir Charles Grandison, Tristram Shandy, Roderick Random, we can set Pamela, Clarissa, Amelia, Evelina, Emma. (333)

What I'm also interested in thinking about--in addition to the way that names say something about the novel itself--is also how the name points to a certain confusion of identity, and how that is linked to the epistolary form of the novel. Many critical scholars--particularly Terry Castle and Stephanie Fysh--suggest that the materiality and form of the novel intervenes in the "illusion of realism" that Richardson achieves. In other words, there versimilitude of reality seems to work on a closed-circuit, and the formal quirks of the novel (Paper X, the signatures that are not signatures), this reality is laid bare as illusion for the reader. This may be what Lacan would refer to as a méconaissance--a misrecognition of the self and of reality itself. Following this psychoanalytic strain, I would suggest as a secondary source, Slavoj Zizek's Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out. In the first chapter he suggests why the recipient of a letter always recognizes himself as the addressee of a letter; in other words, the recipient uses to letter to "misrecognize himself", and the letter is essential in constituting individual identity. Unsurprisingly, the first chapter is titled: "Why does a letter always reach its destination?" and in it, he writes of the letter recipient: 

I don't recognize myself in it because I'm its addressee, I become its addressee the moment I recognize myself in it. This is the reason why a letter always reaches its addressee: because one becomes its addressee when one is reached. The Derridean reproach that a letter can also miss its addressee is beside the point: it makes sense only insofar as I presuppose that I can be its addressee before the letter reaches me--in other words, it presupposes the traditional teleological trajectory with a preordained goal. (12)

Whew. Well, hopefully I didn't get too far off course with this posting, and hopefully raised a few more ideas to consider when it comes to letters, names, addressees, reality, and identification. 

Mementos of death - storing locks of hair

Mementos of Death
Here is a link illustrating the various Memento objects Professor Davidson mentioned in class.
18th century memento rings, bracelets, brooches etc of the 18th C. Some hold hair, pictures or other items to remember loved ones. The imagery illustrated on the jewelry and some of the other objects is associated with death during the 18th century, especially that of the skeleton or bones. A good resource for pictures and to get an idea about what we discussed last class prior to the class on April 15th

http://www.artofmourning.com/rings.html

Passages for class today