2020 Macaulay Prize Winner: Rachel Gevlin, "Voluntary Celibates; Or, Why Sir Charles Grandison is (a) No Wanker"
Rachel Gevlin is a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University. She works on depictions of adultery and constructions of masculinity in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British novel.
From its great title to the clear connection between the eighteenth century and today, along with dialogue in multiple critical conversations, ”Voluntary Celibates; Or, Why Sir Charles Grandison is (a) No Wanker” is a lively reading of Samuel Richardson's less talked about work. Rachel Gevlin centers their argument about Grandison, “the eighteenth century’s most famous virgin,” within modern incel movements, specifically the Proud Boys. In a fascinating discussion, the essay traces the performativity of male chastity and argues that the Proud Boys and Grandison share one core assumption: “that a man living without sex has lost and must regain control over his masculinity.” Grandison is a less sexually performative male figure than the highly sexualized rake, but Gevlin argues that his archetype, which also includes Lord Orville and Mr. Darcy, is no less centered on controlling women by promoting a “conservative ideal of the household” with domesticated monogamous housewives. In addition to its innovative and compelling argument, this essay is clearly and cogently written and makes the eighteenth century accessible and relevant to modern discourses about masculinity and sexuality. It dives deeply enough to prove its central thesis about Grandison while making connections with other texts to show the potential for this reading as a lens for studying an important intersection of domesticity, marriage, and power that have long fascinated gender and sexuality studies. Gevlin’s work is an important contribution to the field, and the committee commends the author for their exceptional work.
Rachel Gevlin is a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University. She works on depictions of adultery and constructions of masculinity in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British novel.
From its great title to the clear connection between the eighteenth century and today, along with dialogue in multiple critical conversations, ”Voluntary Celibates; Or, Why Sir Charles Grandison is (a) No Wanker” is a lively reading of Samuel Richardson's less talked about work. Rachel Gevlin centers their argument about Grandison, “the eighteenth century’s most famous virgin,” within modern incel movements, specifically the Proud Boys. In a fascinating discussion, the essay traces the performativity of male chastity and argues that the Proud Boys and Grandison share one core assumption: “that a man living without sex has lost and must regain control over his masculinity.” Grandison is a less sexually performative male figure than the highly sexualized rake, but Gevlin argues that his archetype, which also includes Lord Orville and Mr. Darcy, is no less centered on controlling women by promoting a “conservative ideal of the household” with domesticated monogamous housewives. In addition to its innovative and compelling argument, this essay is clearly and cogently written and makes the eighteenth century accessible and relevant to modern discourses about masculinity and sexuality. It dives deeply enough to prove its central thesis about Grandison while making connections with other texts to show the potential for this reading as a lens for studying an important intersection of domesticity, marriage, and power that have long fascinated gender and sexuality studies. Gevlin’s work is an important contribution to the field, and the committee commends the author for their exceptional work.
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The Catharine Macaulay Prize
Deadline for submission: September 1, 2021 The Catharine Macaulay Prize is an annual award made by the Women’s Caucus of ASECS for the best graduate student paper on a feminist or gender studies subject presented at the ASECS Annual Meeting or at any of the regional meetings during the academic year. In addition to special recognition, the prize carries a cash award of $500. To be eligible for the prize, papers must advance understanding of gender dynamics, women’s experience, and/or women's contributions to eighteenth-century culture, or offer a feminist analysis of any aspect of eighteenth-century culture and/or society. The paper you submit for the prize should be the one you presented at the conference without expansion or significant revision. Submissions for the Catharine Macaulay Prize must be sent directly to the ASECS office for consideration. SUNY Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Ketchum Hall 213, Buffalo, NY 14222; or as an email attachment (Word): asecsoffice@gmail.com). The winner of the prize will be notified soon after the committee has made its decision and will be announced at the following year’s annual meeting and the Women's Caucus luncheon. |
Past Winners
2020: Rachel Gevlin, "Voluntary Celibates; Or, Why Sir Charles Grandison is (a) No Wanker" 2019: Bethany Qualls, "Talking Statues, Treasonous Bishops, and Grave Robbery: Creating the Celebrated Sally Salisbury’s Print Afterlives” Honorable mention: Erin A. Spampinato, “The Origins of the Rape-As-Aberration Plot; or, was Samuel Richardson a Second Wave Feminist?” 2018: Kate Ozment, "Book History, Women, and the Canon: Theorizing Feminist Bibliography" Honorable mention: Paris Spies-Gans, "'Exercising it as a profession': The Rise of the Female Artist in London and Paris, 1760-1815" 2017: Cassie Childs, "Eating Local: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Italian Garden" 2016: Lauren Miskin, "Stitching Selfhood: Late Eighteenth-Century Samplers and the Crafting of British Femininity" 2015: Rachael Schaffner, "Matters of Imag(in)ed Memory and Happy Forgetting in Frances Burney's Camilla" 2014: Megan Hunt, "Women Without History" Honorable Mentions: Michael Nicholson, "A Singular Experiment" Arelene Leis, "Intellectual Collecting as Sociable Display" 2013: Glenda Goodman, “The Economy of Accomplishment: Aesthetics and Labor in Women’s Musical Lives” 2012: Kate Hamilton, “She ‘came up Stairs into the World’: Elizabeth Barry and Restoration Celebrity” 2011: Susan Muse, “From Femme Covert to Feme Overt: Public Justice in Eliza Haywood’s The Distress’d Orphan” and Edward Kozaczka, “Queer Gardens: Cultivating Desire in Penelope Aubin’s Lucinda" 2010: Julia H. Fawcett, "Charlotte Charke and the Over-Expression of Gender" 2009: Caroline Wigginton, "Faithful Translations: Reconsidering Coosaponakeesa's Acts of Interpretive Authorship on the Creek Frontier" 2008: Sonja Boon, "Does a Dutiful Wife Write, or, Should Suzanna Get Divorced? Reflections on Suzanne Cuchod Necker, Divorce, and the Construction of the Biological Subject" 2007: JoEllen DeLucia, "'Beyond the Narrow House': The Ossian Poems, Gender, and Empire" 2006: No prize given. 2005: No prize given. 2004: Elizabeth Bennet, "Divergent Paths to Virtue in the Lives and Writings of Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot" 2003: Melissa Ganz, "Moll Flanders and English Marriage Law" 2002: Andrew Piper, "Lost in Translation: German Women Translators around 1800" 2001: Jord/ana Rosenberg, "The Bosom of the Bourgeoisie" 2000: Anita de Freitas Boe, "'Neither Is It All Becoming': Edmund Burke's A Philosophic Enquiry, the Beautiful, and the Disciplining of Desire" 1999: Theresa Ann Smith, "The Proposal for a Female National Dress in Eighteenth-Century Spain" 1998: Lisa Zunshine: "'What door would it open to scandal...': Female Philanthropy and the London Foundling Hospitals" 1997: Elizabeth Child, "Geography, Gender, and Print Culture: [Re]Locating England's Provincial Women Writers" 1996: Mary Catherine Moran, "Eighteenth-Century Conduct Literature and Scottish Conjectural History on the Role of Women in the Progress of Mankind" 1995: Melissa Hyde, "Ambiguities of Gender Identity in François Boucher's Pastoral Paintings" 1994: Rebecca Messbarger, "Masked Resistance: A Woman's Defense of Women's Education in Eighteenth-Century Italy" 1993: Alessa Johns, "Engendering Utopias: Examples from Mid-Eighteenth-Century England" 1992: Charlotte Sussman, "Consuming Anxieties: Women and the Politics of Sugar, 1792" |
