Female friendship in eighteenth-century English literature [ Feelings & Emotions ]
… of the long eighteenth century offers abundant portraits of female friendship as a frequent form of sociability among women – sometimes sentimentalised as true spiritual companionship between pure and innocent souls, sometimes demonised as … desire. As opposed to men’s friendships, which centred on socialising in the public sphere, forms of attachment among women were associated with the intimate and the private. Whether it is through the refinement of romantic odes to female … of lesbian desire, fictional portraits of female friendship in the long eighteenth century seem to have provided women with the intellectual stimulus, the emotional support and the spiritual fulfilment that was often missing in their …
Conflict | Friendship | Gender | Sex | Women
Encyclopedia