Abstract
Jane Porter’s later career illustrates the difficulties faced by writers who must balance political beliefs with affective responsibilities. After her brother, the artist Sir Robert Ker Porter, married into a prominent Russian family, Porter was constantly divided between a desire to publicly support Polish sovereignty and a familial need to placate her Russian in-laws. When Robert took a diplomatic position in Gran Colombia, Porter secretly used her literary connections to promulgate her brother’s achievements. The Court Journal and United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine gave her access to political and military readers who might aid Robert’s career, but she hid her own identity behind a range of initials and pseudonyms. Building on recent discussions of Romantic literary families, this essay considers the conflicts behind Porter’s periodical writings and the affective strategies she deployed to navigate her public and private opinions.
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McLean, T. (2019). Family News: Poland, South America, and the Porter Family. In: Macleod, J., Christie, W., Denney, P. (eds) Politics and Emotions in Romantic Periodicals. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32467-4_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32467-4_10
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