The Female Philosopher and Her Afterlives: Mary Wollstonecraft, the British Novel, and the Transformations of Feminism, 1796-1811

Description

This book argues that the female philosopher, a literary figure brought into existence by Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, embodied the transformations of feminist thought during the transition from the Enlightenment to the Romantic period. By imagining a series of alternate lives and afterlives for the female philosopher, women authors of the early Romantic period used the resources of the novel to evaluate Wollstonecraft’s ideas and legacy. This book examines how these writers’ opinions converged on such issues as progress, education, and ungendered virtues, and how they diverged on a fundamental question connected to Wollstonecraft’s life and feminist thought: whether the enlightened, intellectual woman should live according to her own principles, or sacrifice moral autonomy in the interest of pragmatic accommodation to societal expectations. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction: The Female Philosopher (Deborah Weiss)....Pages 1-49 Mansions of Despair: The Wrongs of Woman and the Commonality of Experience (Deborah Weiss)....Pages 51-85 Passions of the Mind: The Moral Martyrdom of Emma Courtney (Deborah Weiss)....Pages 87-125 More of a Philosopher: Adeline Mowbray and “Every-Day Nature” (Deborah Weiss)....Pages 127-168 Intellectual Rules: The Extraordinary Ordinary Belinda (Deborah Weiss)....Pages 169-219 Empirical Ethics: Sense and Sensibility and Female Philosophy (Deborah Weiss)....Pages 221-251 The Fate of the Female Philosopher: Polwhele, More, Byron, and Beyond (Deborah Weiss)....Pages 253-270 Back Matter ....Pages 271-291