Abstract: This article considers the pronounced fictional bent of Frances Brooke's periodical, The Old Maid (1755–56), paying particular attention to the sentimental frame narrative. It demonstrates that themes from the sentimental frame are repeated with variation in surrounding narratives. Ultimately, the essay posits that the repetitive aspect of Brooke's narratives encourages readers to make comparisons, along with cultivating a critical, tasteful "affection for books." Instead of simply indulging sentimental readers, therefore, Brooke supercharges the fragmentary nature of her medium to promote responsible reading habits, making virtue of necessity while lending credibility to the humble single-essay journal.
Abstract: This " SEL : The Roundtable" features papers from the 2025 Modern Language Association roundtable "Gender and Embodiment: Trans Studies Approaches," organized by Sal Nicolazzo and Kathleen Lubey. The introductory essay recognizes the cluster's internal disagreements over trans-studies scholarly methods as a model for coalitional work more broadly. In the contributions' solidarity across difference, we see a framework for imagining the unlikely collaborations that might strengthen the collective actions of university workers.
Abstract: This paper seeks to identify the historical, disciplinary, and methodological distinctions between early modern trans studies and early modern critical intersex studies. Beginning with a survey of how scholars of early modern literature have taken up "hermaphrodites" and other intersex figures, this paper then turns to a little-known seventeenth-century text called The London Jilt to explore the affordances of critical intersex methods for the study of early modern literature. The paper ends with a reflection upon Hil Malatino's theorization of a trans and intersex coalitional politic and hopes for a similar disciplinary coalition in early modern studies.
