Joanna Baillie Summary

Joanna Baillie - (1762 - 1851) Scottish poet, playwright, editor, and critic. Although Baillie was well recognized and respected among the literati during her life-time, her works fell into neglect so... Read more

In 1798, the same year that Lyrical Ballads was published anonymously, another anonymous publication appeared under the cumbersome title A Series of Plays: in which it is attempted to delineate the st... Read more

Below, Carhart contends that Baillie's insistence that her plays present moral instruction and that individuals represent particular emotions was at the expense of believable characters. Carhar... Read more

Below, Mathur argues that Baillie's plays are, for the most part, dramatically unsound but acknowledges Baillie's strength as a poet. The dramatic works of the major poets of the Roma... Read more

In the following essay, Watkins stresses the historical value of De Monfort's depictions of social conditions and class conflicts. Recent scholarly work on Romanticism and feminism has begun... Read more

In the following essay, Purinton places Baillie within the context of other women writers of her time and examines the overlap of political and gender issues in Count Basil and De Monfort. Many of ... Read more

In the following essay, Burroughs explores "closet plays " — performed for private audiences—and their usefulness to women authors in advancing feminist perspectives. Burro... Read more

In the following essay, Breen presents an overview of Baillie's achievements in poetry, offering readings of a range of her work in order to show that she is a poet of high stature. Joanna Ba... Read more

In the following essay, Colón argues that Baillie's rhetorical strategy in The Bride transforms the imperial endeavor of converting the natives of Sri Lanka into a revolutionary discours... Read more

In the following essay, Brigham contrasts the views of Baillie and Edmund Burke on the subject of “the passions,” focusing on how De Monfort criticizes Burke's notions of the unre... Read more

In the following essay, Brewer analyzes the relationship between Baillie and Lord Byron, discussing Byron's admiration for Baillie even when he dismissed other female writers; her influence on ... Read more

In the following essay, Burroughs examines Baillie's exploration in The Tryal of the “theatre of the closet,” or private theatricals performed by amateurs to invited audiences, sh... Read more

In the following excerpt, Scullion views Baillie as the most important playwright in Scotland in the 1800s and sees her works as having a form peculiar to the nineteenth century. John Any-Body woul... Read more

In the following essay, Dowd shows how and why Baillie distanced herself from German Sturm und Drang melodrama even while using its techniques—especially those of grand spectacle, the depiction... Read more