Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97 “first major feminist – or – “hyena in petticoats”

1. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97“first major feminist – or – “hyena in petticoats” I Life circumstances II Family connections III Politics and society IV The main argument V Critical evaluation

2. I Life circumstances • 1778 begins independent writing career • 1787 works for the bookshop of Joseph Johnson • 1790 A Vindication of the Rights of Men • 1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • 1792 travels to Paris where Vindication is already published • 1794 relationship with George Imlay and daughter Fanny • 1795 suicide attempt • 1797 marries William Godwin and dies in childbed

3. Richard Polwhele’s Obituary • “She died a death that strongly marked the distinction of the sexes, by pointing out the destiny of women, and the diseases to which they are liable”

4. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97“first major feminist – or – “hyena in petticoats I Life circumstances II Family connections III Politics and society IV The main argument V Critical evaluation

5. Family connections marries 1797 William Godwin 1756-1836, anarchist Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97, feminist marries 1816 Mary Wollstonecraft`Shelley 1797-1857 author of Frankenstein Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822, poet

6. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822

7. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97“first major feminist – or – “hyena in petticoats” I Life circumstances II Family connections III Politics and society IV The main argument V Critical evaluation

8. III Politics and Society “marriage is civil death” William Blackstone, oxford prof Intellectual deprivation and lady-like comportment

9. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97“first major feminist – or – “hyena in petticoats I Life circumstances II Family connections III Politics and society IV The main argument V Critical evaluation

10. The Main Argument I • Remember Burke? • Sublime = “pain and danger” • Beautiful = “joy and pleasure” • Sublime = Truth • Beautiful = Simplicity (35)

11. The Main Argument I • Reason (38) • History (40) • Property (42/44) • Poverty (47) • Middle class (54) • Hypocrites (57) • Eternal justice (91/92)

12. Burke (372) “The … people must … respect that property of which they cannot partake. They must labour to obtain what by labour can be obtained; and when they find, as they commonly do, the success disproportioned to the endeavour, they must be taught their consolation in the final proportions of eternal justice.” (372)

13. Wollstonecraft (92) This is contemptible hard-hearted sophistry, in the specious form of humility, and submission to the will of Heaven (of all hypocrites, my soul most indignantly spurns a religious one (57))

14. IV The Main Argument II • State of nature or socialization? (author’s introduction - 109) • Civil society as rational society (I - 117) • The pestiferous purple (I - 125) • Education (II – 129/131/145) • The feathered race (IV - 171) • Equality (IX - 277) • Political corruption (IX - 281) • Representation (IX - 285) • National education (XII - 304)

15. Wollstonecraft’s Feminism • Different duties (165) • Citizens and mothers (283) • Autonomy (179) • Public and private (275)

16. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-97“first major feminist – or – “hyena in petticoats I Life circumstances II Family connections III Politics and society IV The main argument V Critical evaluation

17. Burke on Wollstonecraft • [one of those] “desperate, Wicked, and mischievously ingenious women, who have brought, or are likely to bring Ruin and shame upon all those that listen to them.”

18. V Critical Evaluation • Gender equality • Education • Practical philosophy • History and justice • The personal is the political

19. mary knocks out edmund by shayna butcher