Talk:Frances Burney

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[edit] Editing Help

I am attempting to change the name of the Fanny Burney page to Frances Burney.

According to the Wikipedia Help Page I must do the following:

"With the correct page displayed, click on the "Move" tab near the top of the page. You'll be asked for a new name for the page, and given the option to also move the page's talk page. NOTE: Unless you know what you're doing, it's safest to say yes."

I cannot understand what these instructions entail, and I wonder if there is help available through the Talk pages?

Thanks

[edit] What's in a name?

I am bringing this up here because the subject has the potential to be inflammatory so I don't want to just do an edit without explanation. But, with reference to the first line of this article, Burney is no longer "usually" known as Fanny. "Usually" implies something ongoing and that is not the case here: a glance at anything published about her in the last decade or two would make that clear. Certainly she was known as Fanny to her circle, and certainly she was known as Fanny to scholars until fairly recently. But without getting into a discussion of what using a diminutive of her name in a professional context may mean -- for there be dragons -- the fact remains that the way most of the scholarly community now names Burney has changed, just as it is now common usage to regularize the names of women authors in general (to drop the "Mrs."; to drop the husband's full name; &c). Some may deplore such changes and they might have a point -- the argument to respect the name by which the author was known in her own time is a reasonable one -- but an encyclopedia should reflect the actual terrain, surely?

SO. I would like to throw this out here, and depending on any ensuing discussion, propose to edit the line back to read "also known as." It seems the most neutral formulation. scribblingwoman 18:56, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I guess I agree...("also known as Fanny") Keep sleeping, little dragon!--FlammingoParliament 22:00, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Beauty! scribblingwoman 23:40, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Shouldn't the page be called "Frances Burney" to reflect recent gender conventions? Awadewit Talk 04:23, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Please ignore. I clicked on a link that took me here that said "Fanny Burney." Sorry. Awadewit Talk 04:24, 4 May 2007 (UTC)