“Yield it up cheerfully”: Teaching Consent, Violence, and Coercion in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela

Authors

Leah Grisham, George Washington UniversityFollow

Author Biography

Leah Grisham recently received her PhD from George Washington University, where she works on long eighteenth-and nineteenth-century British literature and culture. Her work can be found in Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, Victorian Periodicals Review and Women’s Writing; upcoming work will appear in the Wilkie Collins Journal.

Abstract

Drawn from the author’s experience teaching Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela during the #Metoo movement, this essay argues that bringing current discourses of consent and gender-based violence into conversation with the novel deepens students’ engagement with and interest in the eighteenth century. While students identify specters of Pamela and Mr. B’s relationship in their own worlds, the novel is also a helpful tool in revealing the many ways in which consent can be coerced.

Keywords

Pamela, Samuel Richardson, #Metoo, consent, rape

Recommended Citation

Grisham, Leah (2020) "“Yield it up cheerfully”: Teaching Consent, Violence, and Coercion in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela," ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830: Vol.10: Iss.2, Article 5.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2157-7129.10.2.1237
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol10/iss2/5