On Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Regular price
€62.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Susan J. Wolfson
Author_Susan J. Wolfson
Category=DSBD
Category=JBSF1
Category=JBSF11
Category=NHB
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
literary criticism
social science
Product details
- ISBN 9780231206242
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 25 Apr 2023
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) made a pioneering and durably influential argument for women’s equality. Emerging from the turbulent decade of the French Revolution, her vindication delivered a systematic critique of the treatment of women across time and place. Drawing on extensive experience teaching and writing about Wollstonecraft, Susan J. Wolfson offers new insight into how Wollstonecraft’s particular methods, style, and energy make this case for her readers.
Wolfson places this polemic in its political and literary contexts and in relation to Wollstonecraft’s other works about political rights. She considers how Wollstonecraft balanced advocacy for the seemingly universal ideals of the French Revolution with analysis of the gendered exclusions in the vaunted rights of “man.” This book pays particular attention to Wollstonecraft’s literary craft, highlighting the force of her close reading. Wollstonecraft pinpointed the role of gendered phrases and concepts in political discourse, both in her opponents’ metaphors and received ideas and in her own efforts to craft a new political language with which to defend women’s capabilities. Wolfson reveals her as a pioneer in decoupling sex from gender and shows how she provided an enduring model of how to be a female intellectual. Sharing the excitement of reading Wollstonecraft’s work with care for her literary as well as political genius, this book provides fresh perspectives both for first-time readers and those seeking a nuanced appreciation of her achievements.
Wolfson places this polemic in its political and literary contexts and in relation to Wollstonecraft’s other works about political rights. She considers how Wollstonecraft balanced advocacy for the seemingly universal ideals of the French Revolution with analysis of the gendered exclusions in the vaunted rights of “man.” This book pays particular attention to Wollstonecraft’s literary craft, highlighting the force of her close reading. Wollstonecraft pinpointed the role of gendered phrases and concepts in political discourse, both in her opponents’ metaphors and received ideas and in her own efforts to craft a new political language with which to defend women’s capabilities. Wolfson reveals her as a pioneer in decoupling sex from gender and shows how she provided an enduring model of how to be a female intellectual. Sharing the excitement of reading Wollstonecraft’s work with care for her literary as well as political genius, this book provides fresh perspectives both for first-time readers and those seeking a nuanced appreciation of her achievements.
Susan J. Wolfson is professor of English at Princeton University. An expert on the British Romantic era, she is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Wolfson’s recent books include A Greeting of the Spirit (2022), Romantic Shades and Shadows (2018), and Reading John Keats (2015), as well as annotated editions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (2012) and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (2014).
