A Cultural Study Of Dancing Balls In Frances Burney’s Evelina And Camilla

Frances Burney is one of the greatest female writers in the late 18th-century Britain,and her novels are famous for the meticulous depictions of the 18th-century social life,leaving a profound influence on the subsequent writers.Virginia Woolf once acclaimed Burney as “the Mother of British Fiction”.Evelina,Burney’s best-known novel,tells an innocent rustic girl’s entrance into London society where she grows to a real lady with decent manners after attending various social assemblies.Burney’s third novel Camilla also vividly presents the daily life of wealthy English aristocracy as well as middle class through weaving the love stories of young Tyrolds.In 18th-century Britain,dancing ball was gradually transferred from the royal court to the folk place,becoming one of the most popular social entertainments.The multiple descriptions of the heroines’ ball attendance prevail in Burney’s two novels,significant to the plot and characterization.Aimed at exploring the implication of dancing balls from the perspective of cultural criticism,this thesis focuses on the dancing balls in the two novels and hence blazes a new trail by circumventing such research approaches as feminism,narratology and ethics that have been applied to studies on Burney since the mid-20 th century.The thesis consists of three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.The first part gives a brief introduction to Frances Burney,Evelina,and Camilla,and then it presents the literature review of the research on the two novels.It also introduces the theoretical perspective and research significance,ended with a summary of the history and category of dancing balls in the two novels.Chapter Two expounds on the role of dancing balls to the urban economy in 18th-century Britain.Being a popular commercial entertainment,the dancing ball contributes to the urban economy by selling tickets and boosting the consumption of costumes and carriages.The demand for constructing more ballrooms deeply influences the cityscape and inner decoration at that time.Chapter Three elaborates on the significance of dancing balls to the youngsters’ love and marriage in 18th-century Britain.Ballroom,a romantic site for single men and women,provides them an easy access to intimacy,even making possible the cross-class marriage.Chapter Four demonstrates the impact of dancing balls on the social life in 18th-century Britain.The dancing ball promotes the intermingling of classes as it is no longer exclusive to the aristocracy.Attendingdancing balls is also an effective way for women to acquire social etiquette and get into broader living space.The conclusion summarizes the main points of the thesis,arguing that the dancing ball functions as an effective catalyst for the economy,marriage,and socialization of 18th-century Britain,in the meanwhile significant to the women’s emancipation from limited domestic space.