Abstract
Abstract: This article analyzes the relationship between verse citation and gendered violence in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (1747–48). While critics have shown the influence of women writers on Richardson's novels, none has observed the role of verse citation or the element of gendered violence connected discursively to that influence in Clarissa . Verse citation in Clarissa evidences both Clarissa 's ultimate agency and the role of women writers in shaping Richardson's novel and, perhaps, the development of the eighteenth-century novel. Simultaneously, verse citation in Clarissa suggests the degree to which that development may have naturalized violence against women and the appropriation of their writings.
Subject
Literature and Literary Theory