Expressions of Oppression or Power? Reconsidering the Texts of Hannah Webster Foster and Tabitha Gilman Tenney

Hannah Webster Foster and Tabitha Gilman Tenney were early American novelists writing in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Each author wrote a sentimental novel and a traditional conduct book. The Coquette and The Boarding School by Foster and Female Quixotism and The New Pleasing Instructor by Tenney, have scarcely been understood in relation to each other. This project attempts to view these texts as in the eighteenth-century society might have. The introductory chapter identifies the problem with the typical feminist critical reading. It also explores many of the popular genres of literature during the eighteenth-century. Included are explorations of the sentimental novel, advice or conduct books, and epistolary novels. Chapter II explores Hannah Foster's The Boarding School and The Coquette in relation to one another, and Chapter III does much the same with Tenney's The New Pleasing Instructor and Female Quixotism. National concerns, social constrictions, and political history are each explored in relation to the works. This paper also disputes the interpretations of several feminist literary critics, such as Cathy Davidson, Walter Wenska and Kristie Hamilton. These writers feel that Tenney's and Foster's works are expressions of oppression. To challenge this argument, much of the history and social mores embedded in the eighteenth century are discussed.