The Children of the Abbey as a Hybrid Text
Regina Maria Roche’s 1796 The Children of the Abbey is a text that crosses the boundaries of genre: it at once engages with the conventions of the Gothic novel, the pedagogical text, the national tale, the novel of Sensibility, and travel literature. As an Irish-born British woman writing this novel during the politically volatile 1790s, Roche’s historical and temporal location may provide an explanation for her development of this hybrid novel. In its employment of multiple and potentially contradictory genres, The Children of the Abbey may be interpreted as Roche’s reflection of and engagement with the instability of her time. In order to more effectively understand the political and social implications of Roche’s work, it is necessary to disentangle the various literary strands within the novel, identify how each genre functions, and consider the possible reasons why it has been woven into the text.
What is Genre?
From Literature as Discourse: Textual Strategies in English and History:
Genre thus refers to systems of classifications of types of texts. Genre classifications are part of a broader social system of classifications, not all of which use the term 'genre', but which have the same essential characteristics and functions. Genres (or types of texts) are classified in terms of both the semiosic dimension (primarily conditions of production and reception, matching kinds of author and writing to kinds of reader and readings) and the mimetic dimension (primarily what topics, themes or meanings will be included and what will be excluded, and their modality, i.e. how they are understood to relate to the real world). Sometimes the mimetic dimension is emphasized in a definition...
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...plicated by “its actual [inclination] towards emotion that exceeded utility” (89). As Regina Maria Roche’s novel may arguably be connected to both the genre of the pedagogical text as well as to the novel of sensibility, tension may arise in the text as the two potentially-conflicting genres are both engaged with. Hybrid novels, therefore, may provide both clarification as well as confusion in the interpretation they encourage of their readers.
Works Cited:
Hodge, Robert. Literature as Discourse: Textual Strategies in English and History. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990.
Manning, Susan. "Sensibility." The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1740-1830. Eds. Thomas Keymer and Jon Mee. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Moynahan, Julian. Anglo-Irish: The Literary Imagination in a Hyphenated Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
The end of the eighteenth century in England is a time of growing unrest at the coming revolution, but also of philosophers, writers, and theories. One of these writer/philosophers was Hannah More, eighteenth-century playwright and poet. More dabbled in many fields throughout her life, she also visited France during the Revolution, producing poetry and essays regarding France and its players of the Revolution that are still read today. Regardless, one of her more recognized contributions to English Literature is her poem regarding sensibility: “Sensibility: A Poetic Epistle to the Hon. Mrs. Boscawen” (Hannah More), in which she praises the attribute and those of her friends who possess it. While the attribute described in the poem may have always existed in the minds of men, More was the first to memorably put it to words. Consequently, the creation and definition
Based on the writings and readings we have done in class, the best candidate for discussing the many different types of genre systems would be Charles Bazerman. Bazerman does a successful job at breaking down the meaning of a genre system. His text also analysis’s the larger aggregations that genres are part of and introduces and methodological issue of how expand our perspective on genres and the systems they are part of. Bazerman does all of this successfully by using examples that young people can relate to.
As the inspector begins to investigate the murders of the boys he collects history books that he believes will give him insight into Richard III and his horrible crime. The first history book he comes upon is a historical reader which bears “the same relation to history as Stories from the Bible bears to Holy Writ.” This book explains the tale of the princes in the tower using short paragraphs and full page illustrations which teaches an important moral, but adds no insight to the real story of Richard III. The second text he uses to investigate the crime is a proper school history book. The first realization he comes to while reading this book is that all school history books seem to separate history into easy to digest sections associated by the different reigns that never intersect or overlap. The second realization is that Richard III must have had a towering personality to have made himself “one of the best-known rulers” in two thousand years o...
Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford, 2011. Print.
A genre is specific type of music, films, or writing. In music, genre refers to musical style such as jazz, salsa or rock. In film or literature, the genre is determined by the subject, setting or plot of the story. Many genres, such as "mystery" or "fantasy," overlap in film and literature, while others, such as "romantic comedy" in film or "historical fiction" in books, are specific to one or the
Weldon exposes the desire of instant gratification and lack of reflection and engaging in Literature in a 1980’s conformist society through her opposition to the timeless value of literature of having ‘the power to influence, for good or for bad, the minds of so many,’ to her sibilance, ‘the easy tasty substances of the screen.’ She juxtaposes the contemporary beliefs of Regency England in, ‘Elizabeth Bennet…listening to the beat of feeling…must have quite upset a number of her readers, changed their minds,’ metaphorically representing the influence on her society through Pride and Prejudice’s ability to educate readers’. Weldon reveals her appreciation for the facility of texts to divulge universal ideas through endorsing ‘Literature with a capital L’, providing readers with ‘lessons in moral refinement’ through evoking the symbolic multi-dimensional, ‘City of invention.’ Through this, she provides a metaphor and a recurring motif for the literary canon, to highlight the moral direction given through the composers purpose to influence readers as they, ‘offer a happy ending through moral development…’ Here, Weldon’s declarative tone reflects the ability for composers to persuade their readers. Ultimately, both texts advocate the significance of literature in shaping and reshaping values, to enhance self examination for personal transformations and moral
Genre is the French word for 'type'. Type is the kind of text it is.
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Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html
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Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
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The Websters Dictionary defines ‘Genre’ as a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content. There are different genres of music in the world, the list of which is available in this weblink *