An electronic, international, peer-reviewed, MLA-indexed, EBSCO-distributed journal for studies in Renaissance/early modern literature & culture. APPOSITIONS publishes under a Creative Commons License and is an open-access, independently managed journal. ISSN: 1946-1992. APPOSITIONS will be on hiatus beginning October, 2017.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Kathleen A. Ahearn: "How to Cry up Liberty"
Kathleen A. Ahearn University of Denver
How to “Cry up Liberty”: Mary Astell in Dialogue with Female Dissenters
The question of "first" feminism is one that usefully perplexes the study of more than one early modern woman writer! According to Hilda Smith, we should not label a historical view feminist unless the writer rejects the existence of physiological or rational reasons for the customary roles of women. I've always thought that Margaret Fell Fox fits this definition, although you are saying that she does view women as "weaker," (counterbalanced by enmity to evil?). Where does Astell fit in Smith's criterion?
The question of "first" feminism is one that usefully perplexes the study of more than one early modern woman writer! According to Hilda Smith, we should not label a historical view feminist unless the writer rejects the existence of physiological or rational reasons for the customary roles of women. I've always thought that Margaret Fell Fox fits this definition, although you are saying that she does view women as "weaker," (counterbalanced by enmity to evil?). Where does Astell fit in Smith's criterion?
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