Thesis-2012-Warzycha.pdf (1.56 MB)
Inlargednesse of mind and activity of spirit : gender identities in the religious writings of mid-seventeenth-century England
thesis
posted on 2012-08-09, 13:25 authored by Anna K. WarzychaIn dominant seventeenth-century thinking women’s bodies, minds, and spirits were not only
inferior to men’s, but also more prone to evil. This study explores the ways in which the
women writers attempted to redefine these assumptions. Through an analysis organised along
various spiritual transformations the writers claim to go through, the study presents an insight
into seventeenth-century women’s construction and redefinition of femininity. The symbolic
process of women’s spiritual transfiguration results in them identifying with the metaphorical
figure of Zion and in positioning women as godly agents of God, whereas male writers’
transformations eventuate in their being effeminized and being turned into ‘Crooked Agents’
of God. Therefore, the study shows how the potentials inherent in the biblical figure of Zion
were used in establishing a connection with God and in forming female and male authorial
identity. The thesis draws on the understudied voices of women such as the anonymous Eliza,
Elizabeth Major, An Collins or Gertrude More, and is contextualized by male-authored texts,
some of them considered as canonical and popular in contemporary literature. [Continues.]
History
School
- The Arts, English and Drama
Department
- English and Drama
Publisher
© Anna Katarzyna WarzychaPublication date
2012Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.Language
- en