Aphra Behn and the Changing Perspectives on Ian Watt’s The Rise of the

Aphra Behn and the Changing Perspectives on Ian Watts The Rise of the refreshingIan Watts The Rise of the Novel (1957) remains one of the most influential texts in the study of the English novel. However, an increasingly strong case for a revision of some(prenominal) the work itself and the discourse it personifies has been gradually building over the past twenty years. While the initial stages of, first, womens liberationist and, later, post colonial perspectives may have sought-after(a) only to insert marginalised texts into the existing literary discourse, their long term ramifications are obliging a wider analysis of how we approach the English novel and the manner in which we link it to its surrounding culture. Its exploration reveals the methods with which we trace our histories, what we choose to include and exclude the positions from which we do so. A key to the structure of this discourse lies in the critical fortunes of Aphra Behn, from her feminist rediscovery in the ear ly eighties, through the post colonial informed revisions of the early nineties, and into the rising push for the redefinition of literary history. The complications that have surrounded her indicate the merits and failures of the study of the novel, providing avenues for the maturation of the discourse as a whole. In approaching such issues one will invariably need to begin with Ian Watt. David Blewett claims that The Rise of the Novel casts a tint so long that general studies of the early novel are still written in its shade (p.141). Its central realization that the novels turn out has long been a defining feature of the modern world (Carnochan, p.184) seems to remain largely unchallenged. On similar terms Michael Seidal argues that Watts greater voice remains his ... ...t American Novel Aphra Behns Oroonoko Nineteenth-Century Fiction v38 n4 (1984) 384414.Todd, Janet, Behns Fiction and the Restoration Letter Eighteenth-Century Fiction v12 n2-3 (2000) 391416., The Secret Life of Aphra Behn (London Andre Deutsch, 1996).Warner, William B, Licensing Entertainment The Elevation of Novel Reading In Britain, 16841750 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998). , Staging Readers Reading Eighteenth-Century Fiction v12 n23 (2000) 391416.Watt, Ian, The Rise of the Novel Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (London Chatto and Windus, 1957).Woolf, Virginia, A Room of Ones Own (1929 rpt, Triad/Panther Books Frogmore, 1977).Wyrick, Laura, Facing up to the Other Race and Ethics in Levinas and Behn Eighteenth Century Theory and Interpretation v40 i3 (1999) 206220.