Educating the Female Orphan: Didactic Discourses in Mid-Eigtheenth-Century Cross-Channel Literature

Abstract

This master thesis examines the depiction of the female orphan's education in eighteenth-century novels in translation. Comparing the narrative templates of the didactical experiences of the female orphans in French and English novels and their respective translations, this research examines to what extent these templates were influenced by national, cultural, and social influences. During the eighteenth-century, education became to be regarded as means of cultivating the vulnerable orphan into a productive citizen, the novel reflects this social endeavour. Yet, they simultaneously question the extent to which the orphan can become an accepted member of society, as the orphans ancestry remains unknown. This thesis examines this contradiction in these novels, while analysing the effects of translation methods on the narrative structures of the novels, and comparing the depiction of the female orphan's education with contemporary educational writings.