the fundamental injustices of a patriarchal culture that places the opportunities for women within a limited domestic sphere. The high quality of the novel stems from the careful use of voice to create distinctive characters and from the depth of social analysis of sex roles, customs, conventions underlying the content of the letters. Foster masterfully characterizes Eliza; her letters have unique rhythm, tone, vocabulary.
"The Coquette" raises the question about the extent to which individual can remain free in a society. Eliza is a coquette, but she is also an intelligent young woman unwilling to bury herself in a. conventional marriage with a man (Mr. Boyer), whom she finds interesting but dull. Reverend Boyer although respectable, is unsuitable for marriage being descended, pedant, with unrestrained temper. She would gladly be married like her friends the Richmans, but she doesn't see such a perspective for herself. For Eliza "Marriage is the tomb of friendship. It appears to me a very selfish state" [5; 1204].
At the end of the eighteenth century American Literature was still far from having found a distinctive voice. But, as Giles Gunn states, the seeds of American writing had been deeply planted, it now only awaited the chemistry of future experience to germinate them and set them free. Among "the seeds of American writing" - distinct women's voices of Susanna Rowson and Hannah Webster Foster who used novel to raise a female voice for their position.
ЛІТЕРАТУРА
Adams, Abigail. Abigail Adams to John Adams // Early American Writing. - N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1994. - P. 502509.
Adams, John. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, April14, 1776 // The Heath Anthology of American Literature / Third Ed. Paul Lauter, gen. ed. Boston. - New York, 1998. - Р. 906.
Early American Writing / Ed. and with an Introduction by Giles Gunn. - N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1994.
Davidson Cathy N. Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America. - New York: OUP, 1986.
Foster, Hannah Webster. From The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton / The Heath Anthology of American Literature / Third Edition. Paul Lauter, gen. ed. Boston. - N.Y.: HMC, 1998. - Vol. I. P.1196 - 1215.
Parker, Patricia. Susanna Rowson. - Boston: Twayne, 1986.
Rowson, Susanna Haswell. From Charlotte Temple // The Heath Anthology of American Literature. - Vol. I. - P. 1217-1226.
West, Kathryn. Foster, Hannah Webster // The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States. - N.Y.: OUP, 1995. - P. 328.
