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Publication details for Dr Gillian Skinner

Skinner, Gillian. (2011). '"My Muse loves a little Variety": Writing Drama and the Creative Life of Frances Burney'. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 34(2): 197-208.

• Publication type: Journal papers: academic
• ISSN/ISBN: 1754-0194 (Print) , 1754-0208 (Online)
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2011.00376.x
• Keywords: Creativity, Genius, Inspiration, Comedy, Imagination, Labour, Gender.
• View online: Online version
• Durham research online: DRO record

Author(s) from Durham

• Dr Gillian Skinner

Abstract

This article focuses on Frances Burney's abortive career as a playwright and uses her journals and letters to examine three key points: the suppression of her first comedy, The Witlings; the sole performance of her tragedy Edwy and Elgiva; and the withdrawal from rehearsal of her second comedy, Love and Fashion. I argue that close reading of the journals and letters surrounding these events tells us something about the complexity with which Burney herself, and those close to her, viewed her creativity, and reveals conflicting discourses of inspiration and labour, always complicated by gender.