“Republican Motherhood” and the Discourse of Liberty in the Playwriting of Mercy Otis Warren
- Issue:
- Received: 13 Apr. 2026
- Approved after reviewing: 04 May 2026
- Date of publication: 25 Jun. 2026
- УДК / UDK: 821.111(73).0
- Publication Type: Research Article
- DOI:
- EDN:
- Abstract:
This article explores the discourse of liberty in the playwriting of Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), one of the first American writers whose work became an artistic expression of the ideology of “republican motherhood” in the pre-revolutionary period and during the American Revolutionary Wars. Using three satirical plays — The Adulateur (1772), The Defeat (1773), and The Group (1775) — the author analyzes the ways in which the concepts of “freedom” and “tyranny” are constructed as central categories of republican discourse. Warren uses allegory (the fictional country of Servia), telling names (Rapatio, Hazlerod, Hateall), and intertextual references (to J. Addison’s drama Cato and the poetry of A. Pope and E. Young) to expose the policies of the British colonial administration and morally justify resistance. Particular attention is paid to how the plays develop the image of the virtuous republican (Brutus, Cassius) as opposed to the vicious tyrant, and traces the evolution of the author’s position: from a call for unity and the promotion of rights to a direct justification for armed resistance. The article also examines how Warren’s plays, while remaining within the ideology of “republican motherhood,” simultaneously expand the notion of women’s civic roles, transforming literary work into a form of religious service and the cultivation of a “spirit of freedom” in her compatriots. It concludes that Warren’s plays are not only a historical and literary phenomenon but also an effective political force, contributing to the formation of national identity and republican virtues in the early period of American statehood.
- Keywords: Mercy Otis Warren, “republican motherhood,” discourse of liberty, 18th-century American drama, American Revolutionary War, tyranny and virtue, satirical farce
- For citation:
Morozova, Irina. “‘Republican Motherhood’ and the Discourse of Liberty in the Playwriting of Mercy Otis Warren.” Literature of the Americas, no. 20 (2026): 314–331. https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2026-20-314-331
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