Stephanie Clayton

Overview

My thesis is based upon the formal and informal networks sustained through manuscript letters and social encounters in the eighteenth century. The specific figures I intend to research are Elizabeth Montagu, the Duchess of Portland, the Countess of Hertford and Lord Lyttelton. While figures like Montagu have received extensive focus, the others have not, and I hope that my comparative case studies will help enrich our understanding of all four. The methodology for my research is to undertake a detailed study of the correspondence between these figures, as well as their wider social circle, and their literary production in order to research the mechanisms of patronage and literary performance. I hope to recover contemporary discourses about their public personas, as they attempted to shape their own identities and determine those of others. In looking at the construction of a letter, my research intends to build on the work of Bruce Redford and my supervisor, Melanie Bigold, by exploring performative letter-writing habits. My study will integrate these ‘performances’ within a wider understanding of changing social encounters and environments.