Mary Astell
Reason, Gender and Faith
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9800559 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fiona Williamson (0000-0002-1203-8546, University of East Anglia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 123 |
| Issue | 503 |
| Pages | 1048-1050 |
| Publication date | 2008-08-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The English Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ehr/cen224 |
| OpenAlex | W2142144853 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
This collection of essays was inspired by a session on Mary Astell at the Modern Language Association (MLA) annual convention in 2002. Its premiss is ambitious, drawing on ‘new historicism’ to attempt a multi-disciplinary approach to re-reading Astell's work. This focus serves to move away from traditional feminist interpretations in order to widen the perimeters of study to encompass the perspectives of history, literature and political philosophy. The aim is to express how Astell was unique, not only as a woman writing at the time but in terms of her extraordinary breadth of knowledge and engagement in contemporary political theory and theology, offering her own views with a rare insight and logical methodology. Astell was not simply a writer and correspondent interested in ‘female’ issues such as status and education but an astute political philosopher and theologian in her own right. This selection of articles attempts to redress the balance, bringing her the prominence she deserves, but has lacked in the shadow of male contemporaries such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Daniel Defoe. Overall, they highlight her achievements as a single woman in the public sphere, without losing sight of her personal battle against breast cancer and the desire for obscurity that her work obstinately denied her
Aesthetics · Art · Cicero · Convention · Epistemology · Faith · Historicism · Literature · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Reception theory · Redress · Shadow (psychology · Social science · Sociology · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Classics · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment
| Citations per year | 0.29 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2025 (14) |
| Highly cited | No |