Crow 1

Katelyn Crow
Dr. Narain
Research Seminar in Global Literature
12 December 2016
Epistolary Style and The Woman of Colour
Anonymously published in 1808, The Woman of Colour follows the story of Olivia
Fairfeld, the daughter of a white plantation owner and a black female slave. Though she is
illegitimate due to her mother and fathers inability to marry, Olivias father recognizes her as his
daughter and leaves her everything in his will. However, in order to receive her inheritance,
Olivia must marry her cousin, Augustus Merton, in England. Thus, the novel covers Olivias
experiences as she travels from her home land of Jamaica to England, where her life unfolds as a
result of her fathers will. While in England, Olivia experiences oppression two fold, both due to
her race and her gender. The Woman of Colour is an epistolary novel, written through letters
from Olivia to her governess in Jamaica, Mrs. Milbanke. The author chose this style because
letter writing was one of the only forms of agency for women at the time. Through her letters,
Olivia uses the one bit of agency she has to fight for further independence, both for her gender
and her race. This paper will explore the history and evolution of letter writing and the epistolary
form as they relate to female agency, using The Woman of Colour as a prime example. In order to
further understand the epistolary styles relation to agency, it is important to first understand the
form and history of letter writing.
As letter writing grew in popularity throughout the world, so too did the need for
established letter writing conventions. According to Webster Newbold in his article Traditional,
Practical, Entertaining: Two Early English Letter Writing Manuals, William Fulwoods Enemy

Crow 2
of Idleness (first published in 1568) and Angel Days The English Secretary (first published in
1586) were among the first and most popular printed works on letter writing in English
(Newbold 270). Both books remained in print for roughly 50 years and therefore captured the
attention of a wide range of readers. Day and Fulwood drew from Latin epistolary tradition to
present both theories on letter writing as well as model different types of letters through a
multitude of examples. Both authors began by defining letters and the purpose of
correspondence; they then go on to offer general teaching on letter composing and the
classification of types (Newbold 272). The books cover everything from broad stylistic advice
to definition and function of the technical aspects of the document such as various salutation
suggestions, thus allowing for a wide variety of readership (Newbold 272).
Fulwood and Days books were particularly interesting to female readers for various
reasons. One was that both books offered a large number of familiar letter models, which dealt
with everyday life, such as courting or familial letters. These were especially important to
women because in Elizabethan society, it was imperative to hold family and friends together, for
the sake not only of honor bur of mere economic survival (Newbold 275). This vital task was
left up to women as one of their main roles was to nurture relationships through correspondence.
Therefore, women looked to these letter writing books as a means to improve their
communication abilities and keep their inner circles intact. Olivia demonstrates this need to
preserve close relationships as she writes to Mrs. Milbanke and continuously attempts to keep a
connection with her life and ties back in Jamaica while she is in England.
In addition to the practical applications of Fulwood and Days books, many readers were
also captured by the entertaining aspects the model letters provided. One form which was
particularly popular was amatory, love letter writing. Its popularity is most likely due to the fact

Crow 3
that love letters already existed in the literary world at the time, so readers were accustomed to
finding this type of letter entertaining (Newbold 293). However, readers also took interest in
letters which depicted family squabbles, as they allowed readers to become vicariously
involved and contained dramatic and emotional value for readers (Newbold 293). Audiences
latched onto the narrative of these letters rather than focusing on the style itself, causing a shift in
which the epistolary form would eventually be recognized as a legitimate literary style. The
author of The Woman of Color, capitalizes on this shift by creating a narrative through Olivias
letters intended for public consumption.
As a modern field of study, all epistolary works are typically grouped into one
overarching category, however, in her article Naming the Un-'Familiar': Formal Letters and
Travel Narratives in Late Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Britain, Amy Elizabeth Smith
argues that a distinction between familiar and formal letters is necessary in order to properly
study the epistolary form. Familiar letters are those crafted for a relatively intimate, individual
correspondent, while formal letters address, implicitly or explicitly, a broader community of
implied readers (Smith 180). According to Smith, when identifying a works audience, it is
important to consider both what audience the author evokes, as well as the actual identifiable
readers. For example, though The Woman of Colour is a published work and clearly intended for
a larger audience, the letters within the work are specifically addressed to only one individual,
Mrs. Milbanke. Therefore, according to Smiths definition, Olivias letters should be classified as
familiar rather than formal because within the letters themselves, Olivia specifically identifies
only one intended reader and the letters are intimate in nature.
Smiths distinction between familiar and formal letters is important both on a text by text
basis as well as on a broad theoretical level. In distinguishing between different types of letters

Crow 4
on a text by text basis, scholars can approach individual works with a more accurate sense of
the contemporary rhetorical conventions adopted by writers and what ends those conventions
might serve, thereby providing a more thorough analysis of an authors work (Smith 201). On a
broader theoretical level, expanding the definition of epistolarity beyond the familiar letter
forces us to question and re-examine the persistent stereotyping of letters as private, subjective,
or 'feminine' documents (Smith 202). This expansion is important because it allows readers and
literary scholars to form a more encompassing picture of what letter writing has meant and
looked like throughout history.
Olivias expression of agency through her letters can be thought of as a contact zone. In her
essay, Arts of the Contact Zone, Mary Louise Pratt defines contact zones as social spaces
where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical
relations of power (Pratt 34). Based upon this definition, The Woman of Colour contains two
major contact zones. The first is Olivias experiences in England. Throughout the novel, Olivia
and her Jamaican heritage enjoy less power than the European born individuals around her. As a
result, multiple clashes occur throughout the novel. One example of these clashes is the
relationship between Olivia and Mrs. Merton, in which Mrs. Merton repeatedly demeans Olivia
and attempts to create conflict in Olivias life as a means to assert power and dominance over
her. The other instance of a contact zone in the novel is through the letters themselves that Olivia
sends to Mrs. Milbanke in Jamaica. The physical letters themselves represent contact zones
because they are not simply Olivias way of interacting with Mrs. Milbanke, but on a broader
scale they represent an interaction between British and Jamaican culture. Viewing Olivias letters
as contact zones is important because, according to Pratt, works which contain contact zones will
read very differently depending on which side of the contact zone the reader is a part of. In the

Crow 5
case of The Woman of Colour, readers from Jamaica would likely admire Olivia and view her
story with pity, while readers of white English descent would be more likely to view Olivias
story with skepticism.
Since the receiver of Olivias letters, Mrs. Milbanke, never replies to Olivia, her perspective
is unknown, thus she is not so much a character as she is a literary device, used to represent a
white female audience. This relates to agency in that the voice that is typically heard, that of a
white individual, is kept silent while a woman of colors voice is the only one present. Thus, a
subversion of power occurs within Olivias letters. In addition, the difference in race between
Olivia and who she is writing to furthers the idea of Olivias letters being contact zones, as her
intended receiver is of a different class than her. For this reason, though readers cannot be sure, it
is likely that Mrs. Milbankes viewpoints may differ from Olivias in some ways, thus creating
the cultural clashes which exist within contact zones.
Another key element of Pratts piece is the concept of authoethnographic texts; a text in
which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with ways others have made
of them (Pratt 35). These texts involve a selective collaboration with and appropriation of
idioms of the metropolis or the conqueror which are merged or infiltrated to varying degrees
with indigenous idioms to create self-representations intended to intervene in metropolitan
modes of understanding (Pratt 35). In other words, authors of autoethnographic texts are
typically members of marginalized groups who attempt to correct misrepresentations of
themselves and their culture through writing. The use of idioms and traditions from the dominant
culture is especially important in this genre as it challenges the idea that subordinate groups are
entirely separate from dominant groups, or that subordinate groups lack the capacity to
understand the subtleties of the dominant culture. These texts often emerge in the wake of

Crow 6
contact zones, as is the case with The Woman of Colour. Through her letters, Olivia is engaging
in autoethnographic writing. Individuals of Jamaican descent, especially women, were often
misrepresented in literature and society. They were seen as others, foreign and inferior entities
that could not possibly function in a sophisticated European society. Through her letters, Olivia
speaks as a representor of her people and challenges these notions of Jamaicans, and people of
color in general, as inferior. She does so not simply by fitting in to British society, but actually
showing how she exemplifies British feminine ideals even more so than any of the other female
characters, British or otherwise.
In order to make her autoethnographic text more effective, Olivia engages in transculturation,
or the process whereby members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from
materials transmitted by a dominant or metropolitan culture (Pratt 36). This is not simply an
imitation of norms but rather involves an individual adapting these norms to fit his or her
purpose. One way in which Olivia does this is by expressing her own interpretation of what it
meant to be a proper British woman, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. In addition, the
letters she writes are in themselves an example of transculturation. Letter writing was primarily
associated with two components: femininity and affluence. Letters were traditionally a
feminine activity because the contents of the letters often involved expressions of emotion or
discussion of personal details. However, many women did not engage in letter writing because
they either lacked the ability to communicate through writing (most likely due to lack of
education), or sending a letter was not feasible due to postage fees. For these reasons, Olivia
does not fit the mold of a wealthy, educated European woman that would usually be associated
with letter writing. In this way, Olivia takes the tradition of letter writing and adapts it for her
own purposes and uses these letters as a form of agency to write her autoethnographic text.

Crow 7
Olivias choice to express her point of view through letter writing is not a unique one; many
women throughout the early nineteenth-century used the epistolary form as a primary source of
agency. According to Julia Epsteins article, Jane Austens Juvenilia and the Female Epistolary
Tradition, eighteenth-century writers changed conceptions of correct style in letters by shifting
away from the formal conventions and neoclassical ideals of Renaissance and Restoration
epistolary dogma and moving towards a looser, more emotive and expressive style (Epstein
399). Due to its emphasis on emotion, letter writing was increasingly thought of as a feminine
activity. In fact, by the end of the seventeenth century letters had become inextricably tied to
feminine modes of self-expression and to a social world over which women presided (Epstein
400). Once women realized that letter writing had become a kind of writing that had been
validated as permissible for respectable women, they increasingly began to release writings in
the epistolary form into the public sphere (Epstein 400).
Although the emergence of letter writing represented a great stride towards female
independence, women writers still had to be careful with what they released. If a woman wrote
in order to support herself or to assert her intellect, she defied propriety in the eighteenth
centurys gender economy; yet if she wrote for private expression, destined for private audiences
only, she did not transgress against the virtues of modesty, obedience, decorum, and silence
(Epstein 400). Therefore, women had to clearly identify an intended receiver for their letters. In
Olivias case in The Woman of Colour, her intended addressee is Mrs. Milbanke. If women were
able to dance on the line of appropriateness, they experienced an unprecedented ability to write
freely; It is in their [womens] letters that we may locate a natural voice, a voice unconstrained
by expectation or apology, or, often, conventional femininity (Epstein 400). Olivia finds her
own unconstrained voice throughout The Woman of Colour as she critiques those who would

Crow 8
conventionally be considered above her and expresses her inner most thoughts and emotions
without fear.
Once letter writing was established as a viable literary form, women had to decide what
to do with such expression. According to Susan Wolfson, the subject of letters often moved
from sentimental into political and ideological discourse (Wolfson 402). Thus, women subtly
entered the political world and were able to put forth their ideas and opinions about political and
social issues in a way that was still considered appropriate for their gender, due to the personal
aspect of their writings. Unsurprisingly, one of the most common topics women chose to discuss
(though often indirectly) through their letters was womens rights. Through true or fictional
stories of women suffering under current societal rules, female epistolary writers fought for the
rights of their fellow women.
In The Woman of Colour, Olivia uses her letters to Mrs. Milbanke to join the slowly
emerging womens rights battle and express her struggles with the patriarchal system. Even
before arriving in England, it is clear Olivia knows what type of freedom, or lack thereof, she
will have as a British woman. On her passage overseas, Olivia notes to her friend Mr.
Honeywood, From the moment when I [Olivia] set my foot on your land of liberty [England], I
yield up my independence (Woman of Colour 66). In addition to observing that she will have
little to no agency in Europe, by stating that she will yield up her independence, she implies
that in Jamaica she had independence, contrary to what many British readers may have assumed
at the time. For this reason, it is logical that Olivia begins writing letters once she travels to
England. She did not feel the need to write letters in Jamaica because she had agency; however,
now that she is moving to England, letters are one of the only ways Olivia can retain some of her

Crow 9
previous independence. This is further affirmed by the fact that Olivias last letter takes place
when she is on her way back to Jamaica. A return to Jamaica indicates a revival of her
independence, therefore, Olivia no longer needs to rely on letters as a source of agency.
Beyond the political sphere, the epistolary form was also used as an indirect method of
cultural critique. In this way, satire often took the form of an epistolary travel narrative
(Rangarajan 3). Authors would often write from the point of view of the puzzled foreigner
which allowed the author to demonstrate the oddities of commonplace customs (Rangarajan
3). This type of writing allowed British authors to mimic foreign travelers in order to
illuminate problems within their own country while avoiding any potential repercussions
(Rangarajan 3). In addition, writing the letters from the point of view of the native character
made the epistolary narrative more authentic.
Although she has a British father, Olivias Jamaican upbringing allows her to play the
aforementioned foreign traveler role when she enters England. From the beginning, Olivia
establishes her otherness status while in England. Her first letter begins with the lines,
Launched on a new world, what can have power to console me for leaving the scenes of my
infancy, and the friend of my youth? (Woman of Colour 53). With her characterization of
England as a new world, Olivia immediately subverts expectations about what is typically
considered the old world (i.e. England). In doing so, she simultaneously disassociates England
from all the connotations of power with which old worlds commonly align. Once Olivia
establishes England as the foreign land, she is able to critique it from an outsiders position,
much in the same way other authors used aforementioned satirical travel logs. In her
commentary on British society, Olivia laments that she is disappointed in England: I [Olivia]

Crow 10
expected to meet with sensible, liberal, well informed and rational people, and I [Olivia] have not
found them (Woman of Colour 88). This poignant criticism of British society aligns with ways
in which native cultures were often criticized by the British, thus subtly hinting at the
hypocrisy of British society at the time.
Another motivation for letter writing was that of missionary work. In her essay, Can
Women be Missionaries? Envisioning Female Agency in the Early Nineteenth Century British
Empire, Clare Midgley notes that, Early female missionary memoirs were frequently
published in a number of editions of several thousand copies each (Midgley 341). This shows
that not only did female missionaries exist, but that the work they produced was widely read.
Midgley postulates that the popularity of female mission work stems from womens abilities to
combine missionary ardor with sensitivity to domestic relationships (Midgley 343). In other
words, women were able to connect the public and private sphere through their missionary letters
to create both a personal and societal view on religion. This was especially appealing to female
readers, who experienced most of their religion within the private sphere rather than in public.
Much like these female missionaries, Olivia often invokes God and Christianity as a
means to encourage increased rights for people of color. From her first letter, Olivia makes her
opinions on dividing humans on the basis of race clear by stating, All, all are brethren, children
of the common parent! (Woman of Colour 53). In this case, the common parent Olivia refers
to is God. In other words, she asserts that all humans are brethren because all humans come from
God. She returns to this point again when speaking to little George Merton. When George
accuses Olivia and Dido of being dirty because of their skin colors, Olivia tells him that, The
same God that made you made methe poor black womanthe whole worldand every

Crow 11
creature in it! (Woman of Colour 79). This conversation with George shows that the idea of all
races being equal under God is so simple that Olivia can even successfully explain it to a child.
While Olivias beliefs may be considered over simplistic to modern readers, it is clear she is
aware of what needs to be done in order to move towards racial equality. While at a dinner party,
Olivia says, Those black slaves are, by some cruel masters, obliged to work like horses but
God Almighty created them men, equal with their masters, if they had the same advantages, and
the same blessings of education (Woman of Colour 80). In this statement, Olivia asserts that it
was not God who made people of color unequal to that of white individuals, but rather the lack
of opportunities afforded to them because of the oppression placed on people of color by white
society. The implication of this logic is that by enslaving people of color and demoting them to a
less than status, white masters are essentially working against the will of God. Through this
argument, the author, through Olivia, attempts to appeal to his or her audiences Christian beliefs
in order to sway them into a new mode of understanding.
Olivias recognition of the need for equal opportunities for all humans is one that many
women shared. In the novel, Olivia refers to education as a blessing because she understood
that receiving an education was not a universal right in the world in which she lived (The Woman
of Colour 80). One woman who attempted to combat this problem was Anna Eliot Ticknor.
Ticknor founded the Society to Encourage Studies at Home in 1873 and attempted to create a
system in which geographical boundaries did not determine educational access (Bruder 589).
The all-female school Ticknor created had six main fields of study: English, history, science,
art, French and German, and it was letter writing, that most common of nineteenth-century
habits, that made the Society possible (Bruder 589). All women enrolled in the society were
assigned correspondents in their chosen field of study with whom they would exchange

Crow 12
personal letters and academic work (Bruder 594). Through this system, Ticknor took a medium
of writing which was traditionally intended for personal correspondence between two women,
and expanded the idea of the letter into a vital academic tool in order to expand educational
opportunities for women. Wherever a letter could travel, so too could a Shakespearean play, or a
part of a textbook, or any other written work a woman may desire.
Unfortunately, Ticknors system was not universally praised. Critics such as Harriet
Bergmann, a writer for the New York Times, argued that the school represented a self
contradiction in that it was dedicated to chang[ing] womens lives without altering or
impairing the role society has sanctioned for them (Bruder 589). Bergmann believed that
education solely within the home was useless for women because they were still unable to step
out of the private sphere and actually do something with their new found knowledge. Various
scholars have countered this argument by citing Ticknors Society as a step in the right direction
towards female education and empowerment through a unique letter writing system.
Like Bergmann, in his article, Gender, Obedience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century
Womens Letters, James Daybell is also critical of the use of letters as a sign of progress.
According to Daybell, the early modern household was seen as a microcosm for the hierarchy
of the state; patriarchal theories of the family were used to symbolize submission to the crown
and its officers (Daybell 49). According to Daybell, one way in which the structure of familial
relationships was maintained was through letter writing. This is because the practice of letter
writing could encourage the formation of habits of submissiveness and furnish individuals with
a language of subordination (Daybell 49). This is because the patriarchs of the home often
attempted to limit womens letter writing solely to personal and familial affairs, requiring wives
to allow husbands to read any letter before sending them to make sure they did not stray too far

Crow 13
from proper feminine writing (Daybell 50). In this way, womens writings was kept limited to
maintaining contact with family and friends and little else. However, as Olivia shows in The
Woman of Colour, maintaining contact with a friend can serve a greater underlying purpose.
Though Olivia is simply relaying events in her life to Mrs. Milbanke and never seems to engage
in any outright political discussions, an intelligent reader is able to discern the true purpose of
her letters and detect the messages which lie underneath the surface narrative.
Despite his critiques of the practice of female letter writing, Daybell does lament that in
terms of a field of study, letters are vital in understanding the ways in which people used to live
and interact. According to Daybell, the letters these women wrote shed significant light on the
nature of women's social relationships and their complex position within a socially and gendered
hierarchical society (Daybell 51). In a broad context, this is significant because understanding
women and power structures within the home not only helps scholars trace the progression of
womens rights, but also can help explain shifts in power structures as a whole. Olivia is the
embodiment of such a shift as she temporarily transcends her race and ethnicity and participates
in white British society. Olivias letters, along with nonfiction womens letters, provide a lens
into how womens daily lives changed over time.
The art of letter writing has continued to evolve with society. What started as an informal
practice mostly for the wealthy expanded into multiple forms of practical and entertaining uses.
Beginning in the seventeenth-century, women began to rely on the epistolary form as a basic
mode of social and familial interaction with friends and relatives from across town or even from
across the nation (Bruder 597). In addition to the aforementioned works of Fulwood and Day,
who authored manuals on the epistolary style, by the end of the eighteenth-century, juvenile
guides provided letter models for young writers, making letter writing more accessible to

Crow 14
younger generations (Bruder 598). This expansion into youthful letter writing continued into the
next century and by the mid-nineteenth century (shortly after The Woman of Colour was
originally published), textbooks began to include epistolary writing as a means to improve
students' compositional skills (Bruder 598). This expansion of the letter writing community led
to the production of unique works intended both for private and public consumption. Scholars
explain the pervasive popularity of the epistolary form in many ways, but most agree that letter
writings appeal comes from its unique ability to allow readers to vicariously live through the
individual writing the letter. Letters allow the author to touch readers in a way that no other genre
can accomplish. Letters reveal a writers character and provide interesting detail as well as
document personal relationships (Smith 200). Letters provide a window into an individuals
inner most life. It is for these reasons, the personal touch, among all of the other aforementioned
functions of letters, that the author of The Woman of Colour chose the epistolary genre above all
others.
While it is true that the epistolary form enjoyed various bouts of popularity throughout
history, it is also worth noting that the epistolary novel, in particular, was not popular during The
Woman of Colours publication. Therefore, despite the fact that the author of The Woman of
Colour was clearly drawing from a long standing tradition, it is still odd that he or she chose to
publish an epistolary novel in a time in which the form was not commonly circulated. There are
multiple potential explanations for this. One is that using an epistolary novel was simply a
revival effort, a call to return to a form that was losing steam. In addition, an epistolary novel
seems to make the most sense given the storys narrator, a woman of color. Choosing to represent
Olivia through the epistolary form only adds to the realism of the novel as it is unlikely that a
woman of Olivias background would have the means to publish a formal novel.

Crow 15
In The Woman of Colour, Olivia Fairfeld faces a lack of agency in early nineteenth
century British society, both as a woman and as a person of color. In order to combat her nearly
nonexistent voice in society, Olivia turns to letter writing, one of the few allowable forms of
female expression at the time. Through the epistolary form, the anonymous author of The
Woman of Colour is able to speak through Olivia and deliver a critique of race and gender
relations in British society.

Crow 16
Works Cited
Bruder, Anne. Dear Alma Mater: Women's Epistolary Education in the Society to Encourage
Studies at Home, 18731897. The New England Quarterly, vol. 84, no. 4, 2011, pp.
588620. www.jstor.org/stable/23054818.
Daybell, James. Gender, Obedience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Women's Letters. The
Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, 2010, pp. 4967.
www.jstor.org/stable/27867637.
Daybell, James. Recent Stidues In Seventeenth-Century Letters. English Literary Renaissance,
vol. 36, no. 1, 2006, pp. 135170. www.jstor.org/stable/24463814.
Dominique, Lyndon J., editor. The Woman of Colour. Broadview Editions.
Epstein, Julia L. "Jane Austen's Juvenilia And The Female Epistolary Tradition." Papers On
Language And Literature: A Journal For Scholars And Critics Of Language And
Literature 21.4 (1985): 399-416. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.
Midgley, Clare. "Can Women Be Missionaries? Envisioning Female Agency in the Early
NineteenthCentury British Empire." Journal of British Studies 45.2 (2006): 335-58.
Web.
Newbold, W. Webster. Traditional, Practical, Entertaining: Two Early English Letter Writing
Manuals. Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, vol. 26, no. 3, 2008, pp. 267
300. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rh.2008.26.3.267.
Pratt, Mary Louise. Arts of the Contact Zone. Profession, 1991, pp. 3340.
www.jstor.org/stable/25595469.

Crow 17
Rangarajan, Padma. "Colonial Funkiness: Cosmopolitanism And Fake Travelogues In
Nineteenth-Century Britain." Nineteenth Century Studies 23. (2009): 1-16. Historical
Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.
Salsini, Laura A. Private Lives, Public Letters: The Making of an Epistolary Heroine. Italica,
vol. 88, no. 4, 2011, pp. 602620. www.jstor.org/stable/41440476.
Smith, Amy Elizabeth. Naming the Un-'Familiar': Formal Letters and Travel Narratives in Late
Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Britain. The Review of English Studies, vol. 54,
no. 214, 2003, pp. 178202. New Series, www.jstor.org/stable/3661332.
Whyman, Susan E. Letter Writing and the Rise of the Novel: The Epistolary Literacy of Jane
Johnson and Samuel Richardson. Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 4, 2007,
pp. 577606. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/hlq.2007.70.4.577.
Wolfson, Susan J. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature 13.2 (1994): 401-3. Web.

Crow 18
Bibliography
Bruder, Anne. Dear Alma Mater: Women's Epistolary Education in the Society to Encourage
Studies at Home, 18731897. The New England Quarterly, vol. 84, no. 4, 2011, pp.
588620. www.jstor.org/stable/23054818.
Daybell, James. Gender, Obedience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Women's Letters. The
Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, 2010, pp. 4967.
www.jstor.org/stable/27867637.
Daybell, James. Recent Stidues In Seventeenth-Century Letters. English Literary Renaissance,
vol. 36, no. 1, 2006, pp. 135170. www.jstor.org/stable/24463814.
Dominique, Lyndon J., editor. The Woman of Colour. Broadview Editions.
Epstein, Julia L. "Jane Austen's Juvenilia And The Female Epistolary Tradition." Papers On
Language And Literature: A Journal For Scholars And Critics Of Language And
Literature 21.4 (1985): 399-416. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.
Fielder, Brigitte. Womens Narratives of the Early Americas and the Formation of Empire. Edited
by Mary McAleer Balkun and Susan C. Imbarrato, 2016.
Midgley, Clare. "Can Women Be Missionaries? Envisioning Female Agency in the Early
NineteenthCentury British Empire." Journal of British Studies 45.2 (2006): 335-58.
Web.
Newbold, W. Webster. Traditional, Practical, Entertaining: Two Early English Letter Writing
Manuals. Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, vol. 26, no. 3, 2008, pp. 267
300. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rh.2008.26.3.267.

Crow 19
Pratt, Mary Louise. Arts of the Contact Zone. Profession, 1991, pp. 3340.
www.jstor.org/stable/25595469.
Rangarajan, Padma. "Colonial Funkiness: Cosmopolitanism And Fake Travelogues In
Nineteenth-Century Britain." Nineteenth Century Studies 23. (2009): 1-16. Historical
Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.
Salsini, Laura A. Private Lives, Public Letters: The Making of an Epistolary Heroine. Italica,
vol. 88, no. 4, 2011, pp. 602620. www.jstor.org/stable/41440476.
Smith, Amy Elizabeth. Naming the Un-'Familiar': Formal Letters and Travel Narratives in Late
Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Britain. The Review of English Studies, vol. 54,
no. 214, 2003, pp. 178202. New Series, www.jstor.org/stable/3661332.
Whyman, Susan E. Letter Writing and the Rise of the Novel: The Epistolary Literacy of Jane
Johnson and Samuel Richardson. Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 4, 2007,
pp. 577606. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/hlq.2007.70.4.577.
Wolfson, Susan J. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature 13.2 (1994): 401-3. Web.