Mary Wollstonecraft's social and aesthetic philosophy
Subtitle: "an Eve to please me"
By: Saba Bahar.
Publisher: Palgrave
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
Subjects: Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 -- Philosophy.; Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 -- Aesthetics.; Feminism and literature -- England -- History -- 18th century.; Women and literature -- England -- History -- 18th century.; Aesthetics, British -- 18th century.
Description: "Combining the history of ideas with close textual reading, Mary Wollstonecraft's Social and Aesthetic Philosophy examines Mary Wollstonecraft's attempts to revise representations of women to give them a more active role in public life. Bahar insists that Wollstonecraft's political claims cannot be separated from her desire to develop more convincing aesthetic representations of women.

Consequently, by steering away from distinctions between the 'public' and the 'private', this study highlights the ambiguous status of the 'public woman', whose very name invokes her sexuality. Against such a connotation, Wollstonecraft proposes a new figure of female virtue. The book also argues that she abandons the conventional sentimental scene of women in distress which invites a 'pity bordering on contempt' and tries to develop an aesthetics of solidarity.

Her aesthetic revisions are crucial for acknowledging women's active participation in civic life and for inviting collective action to change the 'oppressed state of [her] sex'."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-213) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. 'An Eve to Please Me': Mary Wollstonecraft and the 'Public Woman'; title: 'An Eve to please me' 'Invidious censureswill not keep me mute in the cause of Liberty and Virtue':; title: Catherine Macaulay and the 'public woman'; title: Rights and righteousness: wives, mothers and women Mary Wollstonecraft and the 'public woman'; title: 2. The Old Abelard: or, Heloise among the Immodest Philosophers; title: The New Heloise or the same Old Abelard; title: Ogle: or, how the philosopher sinks into the man; title: Mary: or, how genius must educate itself; title: Rousseau's paradise; title: Modesty; title: Immodest philosophers and female citizens; title: 3. Making Novel Creatures; title: How novels make women creatures of sensation; title: How women make novels creations of sensation; title: Reforming the genre; title: 4. The Wants of Women; title: Mary's and Fanny's wants; title: Representing women in distress; title: The wants of Scandinavian women; title: Contracting wants; title: From the wrongs of women to the wants of women; title: 5. Conclusion; title: Notes; title: Bibliography; title: Index.