Masculinity, Misogyny, and Desire in Aphra Behn’s Lycidus, or the Lover in Fashion and Robert Gould’s Love Given O’re
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This essay focuses on one of Aphra Behn's most neglected works, Lycidus, or the Lover in Fashion (1688).In this prosimetric, allegoric, satiric, epistolary, firstperson travel narrative Behn translated -and reimagined -Paul Tallemant's two-part fiction Le Voyage de l'Isle d'Amour (1663) and Le Second Voyage de l'Isle d'Amour (1664).By reading Behn's Lycidus against Tallemant's Voyages this essay explores the acute attention Behn paid to the development of her narrator-protagonist's character and voice.Behn's narrator, this essay argues, has much in common with the speaker of Robert Gould's notoriously misogynistic poem Love Given O're (1682).By exploring how Behn echoed the language of Gould's poem in order to develop her protagonist's voice, this essay reveals how Behn crafted Lycidus as a satirical portrait of contemporary masculinity, misogyny, and desire.
Source: Women s Writing
Author: Jennifer Batt
Institution: University of Bristol
Language: English
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4409760282