ENG250Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Phillis Wheatley, Methodism
Document Summary
Purchased and brought into the family to be domestic servant and companion to her owner mrs. wheatley. Didn"t know english, clearly educated by mrs. wheatley"s daughter. Portrait itself seems notable, individual rising and acknowledgment. Actively writing with feather in hand, sense of power. Legitimizing her, like the bradstreet and rowlandson preface stuff. Attached to his name, saw that in bradstreet. Attempt to domesticate her, put into familiar setting. Preface, it"s okay she was doing her work. Master legitimizing with a letter to the publisher. Savvy business woman, aware of sentimental culture of the moment. Believes in christianity, this is difficult for us to accept. Era where religion isn"t a sealed community anymore, new emphasis of missionaries. Devotion to christianity, awareness of politics, emphasis on individual. 1960s, people frustrated, more recently recognize covert subversive nature of poem. Poems start off more religious, then become political.