Honour, desire, discourse: The notion of authority in Aphra Behn's comic drama.

Abstract

Honour, Desire, Discourse: The Notion of Authority in Aphra Behn's Comic Drama examines Aphra Behn's negotiation, within her comic drama in particular, with the notion of authority in one of England's most culturally and politically tumultuous eras. Contextualized within the sociohistory of the latter half of the seventeenth century, the paper looks in detail at three of Behn's comic plays: The Rover, or, the Banish't Cavaliers, Part I (1677), The Lucky Chance, or, The Alderman's Bargain (1686), and The Widow Ranter, or, The History of Bacon in Virginia (1689). Each study revolves around Behn's treatment of the notion of authority within the play, the particular social and political moods or events that inform this treatment, and Behn's use of the comic genre as a medium for discourse with dominant cultural paradigms.