Independent enGendering

Quite independently, Alana and I came upon the same source for our presentation. It, too, got me thinking about Sterne's presentation of Yorick, a character often associated with himself. It is curious to think of Yorick as some kind of androgenous, though still sexual, character; even curiouser when one recognizes the influence Sentimental Journey had on the growing sentimental novel, as Mullan observes. The growing empowerment of women in the eighteenth century novel (which even traditionalists like Watt note) finds a balance in the "Man of Feeling," to use Mackenzie's term. For in that new hero, a more feminized male hero is engendered in the novel. But I mention the curiousity of this movement with respect to Sterne due to his treatment of the female reader of his Tristram Shandy, as persuasively argued by Barbara M. Benedict (among others). Benedict points out that the easily frightened, dense female reader that Sterne engenders is foiled with his intelligent, thoughtful male reader. Benedict finds Sterne's work to be antagonistically anti-feminine, critiquing romances, "female" trends in reading ("novelty over significance," for instance), and the corruption of the male literary culture (Benedict 490).

But this chauvinism is not apparent in Sentimental Journey. Without going into it too much here, I encourage everyone to consider the changing gender roles of the novels we've read. How does Sentimental Journey fit into this strain? Might you consider Sterne chauvanistic based on your reading of SJ alone? Did the sentimental novel change men's presentation in novels significantly?