Resisting the Marriage Plot
eBook - ePub

Resisting the Marriage Plot

Faith and Female Agency in Austen, Brontë, Gaskell, and Wollstonecraft

  1. 254 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Resisting the Marriage Plot

Faith and Female Agency in Austen, Brontë, Gaskell, and Wollstonecraft

About this book

"I cannot suppose any situation more distressing than for a woman of sensibility with an improving mind to be bound to such a man as I have described."

Mary Wollstonecraft's response to one of her early critics points to the fact that fiction has long been employed by authors to cast a vision for social change. Less acknowledged, however, has been the role of the Christian faith in such works.

In this Studies in Theology and the Arts volume, literary scholar Dalene Joy Fisher explores the work of four beloved female novelists: Jane Austen, Anne Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Each of these authors, she argues, appealed to the Christian faith through their heroines to challenge cultural expectations regarding women, especially in terms of marriage. Although Christianity has all too often been used to oppress women, Fisher demonstrates that in the hands of these novelists and through the actions of their characters, it could also be a transformative force to liberate women.

The Studies in Theology and the Arts? series encourages Christians to thoughtfully engage with the relationship between their faith and artistic expression, with contributions from both theologians and artists on a range of artistic media including visual art, music, poetry, literature, film, and more.

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Yes, you can access Resisting the Marriage Plot by Dalene Joy Fisher in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Feminist Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction: “Doing God’s Work”: Female Heroines in Response to Milton’s Eve
  7. 1 Redeeming “Certain Books”: Leveraging the Novel Form
  8. 2 “Through a Glass Darkly”: Mary Wollstonecraft and Christian Agency in The Wrongs of Woman: or, Maria. A Fragment (1798)
  9. 3 “Fanny, So Odd and So Stupid”: Christian Resistance and Rational Change in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814)
  10. 4 “Devotion to Her Earthly Lord”: Redemptive Marriage in Anne Brontë’s: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)
  11. 5 “All and Everything”: Rebellion, Responsibility, and Redemption in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Ruth (1853)
  12. Conclusion “To Attract the Eyes of Men”
  13. Bibliography
  14. Author Index
  15. Subject Index
  16. Notes
  17. Praise for Resisting the Marriage Plot
  18. About the Author
  19. More Titles from InterVarsity Press
  20. Copyright