Performance of authorship: Contexts of authorship and audience in the plays of Delarivier Manley, Catherine Trotter, and Mary Pix

This dissertation explores how Delarivier Manley, Catherine Trotter, and Mary Pix create their own literary reputations in the prologues, epilogues, dedications, and other paratexts of their plays. Because these women produced their first plays at Drury Lane in 1696, their presence as potentially successful playwrights on the commercial London stage caused one anonymous critic to satirize their authorial abilities in The Female Wits (1696), a play that critics and scholars treat as the historical truth of their literary reputations. Since these three female playwrights serve as examples of early women writing for professional purposes (i.e., financial gain), scholars traditionally discuss these women's contributions to dramatic history as examples of what Jacqueline Pearson calls "prostituted muses." Although Manley, Trotter, and Pix show awareness of their contemporary critics' evaluation of their playwrighting activities as sexual transgression, these women challenge assumptions held by their own critics as well as scholars about authorship and gender.; Manley, Trotter, and Pix develop their authorial identities as female playwrights by creating relationships with the theatrical and reading audiences of their plays to challenge their critics' negative response. Manley attempts to convince her audiences that her gender does not affect her ability to write plays. However, in spite of her claims that her gender should not contribute to her audience's evaluation of her abilities, Manley invokes a male presence throughout her paratexts by dedicating most of her plays to men and using male metaphors for playwrighting. Trotter and Pix, on the other hand, attempt to convince their audiences that playwrighting can be an appropriate activity for women. Trotter establishes her authorial persona by comparing her playwrighting to other feminine activities (like giving birth or being a wife). Pix develops her authorial persona by evoking a response from her audience by reminding them of the appropriate behavior of true English gentlemen towards a lady. By examining the marginal texts of marginal authors, this dissertation calls attention to how these female playwrights are more than marginal female playwrights; my discussion shows how their literary reputations are created by them, their contemporaries and scholars.