An approach to the figure of Aphra Behn: her love poems

Abstract

This paper deals with the enthralling figure of Aphra Behn, the first English women to earn her living by her writing. During her lifetime she gained the attacks of many critics for her chosen subject matter, often alluding to female sexual desire. Several centuries later, Women‟s Studies have contributed not only to the current revival of her reputation and works, but also to give her their fair due for her proven worth and intellectual capability. Firstly, she faced male writers under the same conditions, despite the fact that she didn‟t belong to aristocracy; and secondly she broke cultural barriers by writing in a distinctive poetic voice characterized by audacity and directness in a masculine style assumed as her own.