Role Model of the Week: Aphra Behn, The First Female Author
If you’ve ever had the privilege of sitting down to read a good book, you have known one of life’s most adventurous and exciting hobbies. From the youngest readers to experts of human language, there is no doubt a priceless sensation that comes from reading the written word.
In 2021, a person could walk into a bookstore and find a host of books authored by women with a variety of subjects to select from. There are books dedicated to working mothers and books created solely for the empowerment of women of all ages and backgrounds.
However, it was not always like this and the strides women have made in the literary world must be acknowledged as a feat in itself. From J. K. Rowling making a fortune from her infamous Harry Potter series to Shonda Rhymes creating television shows that have captivated the world for decades, women are becoming more prominent in literary fields.
But this was not always the case for young women centuries ago who aspired to be writers. The importance of their triumphs long ago should not be forgotten especially in how they have affected the lives of young girls in the 21st century.
This article focuses on one of history’s most talked-about female authors: Aphra Behn. A fascinating woman whose passion for writing can only be rivalled by the relentless pursuit of her dreams. She is regarded as the first female author to write and make a living from her work. The sheer volume of her writing was astounding from poetry to playwriting and up until 1970, her work was reproduced into plays, shows and articles.
Today we focus on what she would have had to face in an industry that simply was not prepared for a woman who was not only adept at communication but was bold enough to take chances on herself. She made her own way at a time where women rarely had the opportunity to do anything but get married and have children. Below are three reasons why Aphra Behn is this week’s role model.
She would have experienced Imposter Syndrome to the MAX!
Not much is known about the early years of Aphra Behn. She was from a poor background and few people know the history of her parentage. She would likely have missed out on the tutors and education wealthier children had.
Many of us experience imposter syndrome despite our education as a persistent feeling that our successes aren’t deserved. One of the greatest challenges Aphra Behn would have faced would have been her lack of training in any formal language.
This was a time when women were not allowed entry into school in any shape way or form. It was a feat to enter the writing world as a woman simply because they literally lacked the necessary skills required to speak about the subject matter they were interested in.
Talk about imposter syndrome! The feeling of inadequacy would have been hard to shake given Aphra Behn’s lack of formal education. The reason her story is so empowering is that regardless of how she felt at the time, she's is regarded as one of the first female professional writers of the 18th century and attributed with being political & satirical in her writing.
It is quite impossible to measure how the lack of schooling affected Aphra Behn’s writing career as we will never know what she could have been if she were allowed the same education as her male peers at the time. She herself expressed frustration at her lack of knowledge in subjects like Greek and Latin which many men were taught at the time.
Despite her lack of formal training, Aphra Behn learned the skills she needed to be well known amongst her peers as someone who could be trusted to translate famous literary pieces in a language she was never taught.
2. She Faught For Her Passion As a Writer
Aphra Behn lived in a truly unique time in that although she was extremely popular, she had to make tough choices about what she could write about. Like many moments in our historical timeline, a woman's body was up for discussion and the 18th-century readers were no different in their general interests. It was a time when women who wrote were often assumed to be ladies who had bad reputations among their friends and family and the same was said for Aphra Behn.
Most popular works written for or about women at the time were not political or scientific, they were very much about focusing on what women looked like and the roles their bodies played in general society. By her own admission, Aphra Behn wrote literature that was often contrary to popular beliefs about women of the time. She challenged the ideas that insisted that a woman’s place in the world rested solely on having children and staying at home and she caused quite the stir amongst the general public.
One of the reasons Aphra Behn relied on public popularity so heavily was because most of the money that was made by authors at the time came from government awards and lectures which were closed to women while the general market was not. Therefore, she wrote what was popular for the public in order to survive as opposed to jumping into literary academia like she wanted to.
Aphra Behn could have given up all pursuits of becoming a writer but she persevered in a way that many of us can learn from today. She was so good at her craft, she was able to captivate the attention of her countrymen and women by writing subject matter she did not always feel passionate about. She fought for her livelihood even when it did not turn out to be exactly what she wanted and in doing so, she paved the way for any woman who would aspire to be writers today.
3. She Had Haters & Still Managed to Be Respected
Since Aphra Behn wrote confrontational and satirical pieces about politics and the female form, she was often ill-spoken of amongst her peers. In other words, she had a lot of haters. Yet despite the heavy backlash she faced, she was one of the most popular writers of the restoration era and was fearless in her pursuit of expert craftsmanship in her work as an author.
In fact, the first play she ever wrote was extremely controversial, extremely feminist and an absolute success. It was called The Forcd’ Marriage and it centred around a girl who was doomed to marry a man she did not love, a fate that was common for most women in that day and age. Although Aphra Behn was aware of the controversy she would cause, she wrote a play that challenged the way people thought of marriage in the 1800s. She brought to light the pain and anger that went along with arranged marriages of the time, especially for young women who often had to marry to survive.
The play was a success with Aphra-Behn gathering large audiences who were captivated by the in-depth set of emotions that she was able to express. The feeling of hopelessness that the characters all felt at not being with the ones they loved was a sentiment everyone could relate to.
Conclusion: Just Do It, No Matter What
Aphra-Behn willingly wrote about touchy subjects at a time when she was already thought to be a woman of bad reputation simply because she was an author. As one of the first-ever published female authors, she is an inspiration and showed the need for representation in books for people of all genders, ages and backgrounds. So today our role model is Aphra Behn, because without her, many women would never have been given the right to have their stories published freely in books.
References:
Bowditch, C., & Hobby, E. (2020). Aphra Behn's 350th Anniversary and Some Radical Re-imaginings. Women's Writing : The Elizabethan to Victorian Period, 27(3), 265-274.
Kewes, P. (2002). Aphra Behn's Afterlife. The Review of English Studies, 53(210), 260-262.
Ogilvie, M. (1986). Women in science : Antiquity through the nineteenth century : A biographical dictionary with annotated bibliography. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.