Reclaiming myths of power
Subtitle: women writers and the Victorian spiritual crisis
By: Ruth Y. Jenkins.
Publisher: Bucknell University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Lewisburg [Pa.]; London; Cranbury, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
Subjects: Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910.; English fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism.; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Fiction -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.; Power (Social sciences) in literature.; Spiritual life in literature.; Christianity and literature.
Description: This book re-examines the Victorian spiritual crisis from the perspective of the period's women writers, exploring the spiritual dimension in their lives and narratives. The introduction considers the relationship between sacred and secular canons and the limited access women have had to both.

In the following chapters, case studies of the lives and selected texts of Florence Nightingale, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between female spiritual crises and diverse narrative strategies that reappropriate the conservative power associated with religious symbolism for a radical revisioning of women's social subjection.

By analyzing the neglected spiritual crises these women experienced, their discourse, and that produced by other Victorian women, this study reveals a more complex, problematic, and polemical dialogue during the period than has previously been argued.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-192) and index.