Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Annotated Bibliography: Moll Flanders

I

Chaber, Lois A. “Matriarchal Mirror: Women and Capital in Moll Flanders.” PMLA, vol. 97, no. 2, 1982, pp. 212–226. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/462188.

Chaber takes on critics that illustrate Moll Flander’s moral status. Instead of illustrating the wrongs of her actions, Chaber celebrates Moll as a figure that challenges normalized patriarchal society. In doing so, Moll escapes the cycle of female domesticity and reproduction.

II

David Wallace Spielman. “The Value of Money in Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and Roxana.” Modern Language Review, vol. 107, no. 1, 2012, p. 65. EBSCOhost.

Spielman focuses on evaluating the value of money in Moll Flanders which dispels the myth that she lived quite a luxurious life. By approximating buying power by contrasting historic prices and wages with present value, Spielman unravels the idea that Moll pursued acts to survive financially

.III

McMaster, Juliet. “The Equation of Love and Money in ‘Moll Flanders.’” Studies in the Novel, vol. 2, no. 2, 1970, pp. 131–144. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29531383.

McMaster analyzes Moll’s actions and explains that money is the key to her motives. Moll Flanders displaces “emotional and physical considerations” in favor of the acquisition of money. This is done through a sequence of different love affairs.

IV

Novak, Maximillian E. “Conscious Irony in Moll Flanders: Facts and Problems.” College English, vol. 26, no. 3, 1964, pp. 198–204. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/373590.

Novak takes Defoe’s work and breaks down reoccurring themes which he describes as conscious irony. He specifically notes thirteen different complex themes, which mostly are controversial however, when tied together work on an ironic level to portray Defoe’s message through Moll Flanders.

V

Pollak, Ellen. “‘Moll Flanders," Incest, and the Structure of Exchange.” The Eighteenth Century, vol. 30, no. 1, 1989, pp. 3–21. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41467460.

Pollak makes an interesting point, noting that it’s not until after Moll’s act of incest that she truly becomes a hardened individual. Since incest is widely regarded as one of the “most basic of all prohibitions,” future transgressions are virtually neutralized because of it.

VI

Rosenberg, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg. “The Cult of True Womanhood.” The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. edited by Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, Barbara Smith, and Gloria Steinem. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.

This ideology primarily influenced society during the nineteenth century however, roots emerged from literature during eighteenth century England. The cult determined that woman should be “submissive, self-sacrificing, religious, and untouched by sexual desire.” These guidelines arguably influenced society and set gender roles for women which still affects the world today.