ABSTRACT
Anna Trapnel--the poet at the very heart of this book--explicitly represents her poetic production as an act of resistance. In her case, taking the harp in hand moves beyond a figurative or conceptual reshaping of her social role towards a material alteration of it. Harp in hand, Katherine Austen resisted and revised the social conventions related primarily to the role of a wealthy widow. The inconsistencies engendered by the conflicts among Austen’s status as widow, her ambitions for ever higher rank, and her gender underpin her complicated, discontinuous self-representations, which she often presents in the form of lyrics. Trapnel, and Austen-are interesting not only for any overlap their works might have with modes of lyric sociality pursued typically by their male contemporaries but also for how they use their lyrics to reshape their social roles.
