Enlightened Virginity in Eighteenth-Century Literature

CORINNE HAROL is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, Department of English and Film Studies, USA. She was born in Boston, holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and now resides in both Edmonton, Alberta, and Santa Monica, California, USA.

Introduction: Virginity and Patrilinear Legitimacy Blessed Virgins: Anti-Catholic Propaganda and Convent Fantasies The Hymen and Its Discontents: Medical Discourses on Virginity Hymen Humor: Ballads and the Matter of Virginity Virgin Idols and Verbal Devices: Pope's Belinda and the Virgin Mary Faking It: Virtue, Satire, and Pamela's Virginity Novel Virgins: Libertine and Literary Pleasures in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure Conclusion: Clarissa's Exceptional Infertility