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AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number 2. May 2021 Pp. 62-75
Department of English Language and Literature
Faculty of English, College of Arts, King Saud University
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
This study analyses The Rural Lass by Catherine Jemmat (1714-66); the poem will shine a new light on a feminist agenda conveyed through Jemmat’s views through the persona of the rural lass by linking the lass’ own experience with marriage. Challenges in a patriarchal society among female poets in the early ages and before the twenty-first century deserve appreciation for their contributions to early feminist literature. The author will illustrate how Jemmat negotiated her ambitions despite the cultural restrictions that were placed upon her during the 18th century through a rural persona. Jemmat skillfully creates a light-hearted poem, but also one that reflects the determined voice of a speaker who refuses to allow others to dictate her life. Jemmat seems to achieve this in The Rural Lass, as she subtly challenges the parental and societal objections that could often, as in Jemmat’s case, prevent the marriage of a loving couple. This article will study through the feminist literary criticism, that closer analysis of the variations within the metrical composition and of the poetic features in The Rural Lass shows that a deeper level of meaning can be achieved. The structured reasoning ensures that the rural lass appears rational and justly defiant. This paper also explores how a close study of the text allows for the emergence of the admirable spirit of the figure of the rural lass that expresses challenges in a patriarchal society, an eighteenth-century British feminist that has been criticized by her community.
Almufayrij, H. (2021). A Feminist Scheme Conveyed through Catherine Jemmat’s The Rural Lass.
Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 5 (2) 62-75.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no2.5
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Dr. Haifa Almufayrij: is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at King Saud University. Her PhD is in English Literature from Loughborough University, United Kingdom (2017) and her current research interests focus on poetry and pedagogy. ORCiD ID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4844-1994
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