Abstract
AbstractSamuel Richardson's failure convincingly to transfer the eponymous Pamela's exemplary characteristics into his novel's sequel has been critically maligned as a lack of authorial skill. This article demonstrates that Richardson's inability to create the embodiment of idealised maternity is actually due to tensions already existent in eighteenth‐century written maternal advice. ‘Motherhood’ was a concept invested with multiple symbolic functions. In order to stabilise the conception of maternity in the paradigmatic figure of Pamela, therefore, Richardson had to remove her from the physical and place her in the authorial position, writing rather than embodying idealised maternity.
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