Feminist Interpretations of Mary Astell

Contents

Preface

Nancy Tuana

Acknowledgments

1 Locations and Legacies: Reading Mary Astell and Re-Reading the Canon

Penny A. Weiss

2 Mary Astell and the Virtues

Jacqueline Broad

3 Mary Astell’s Account of Feminine Self-Esteem

Kathleen A. Ahearn

4 Mary Astell and the Development of Vice: Pride, Courtship, and the Woman’s Human Nature Question

Alice Sowaal

5 Custom, Freedom, and Equality: Mary Astell on Marriage and Women’s Education

Karen Detlefsen

6 Further Reflections upon Marriage: Mary Astell and Sarah Chapone

Susan Paterson Glover

7 Mary Astell: Some Reflections upon Trauma

Elisabeth Hedrick Moser

8 “From the Throne to Every Private Family”: Mary Astell as Analyst of Power

Penny A. Weiss

9 Mary Astell’s Feminism: A Rhetorical Perspective

Christine Mason Sutherland

10 Mary Astell on the Existence and Nature of God

Marcy P. Lascano

11 The Emerging Picture of Mary Astell’s Views

Alice Sowaal

References

Index

“[A] rich and original collective volume which contributes to further establish the stature of Mary Astell as a daring philosopher and theologian; it is still necessary to do so, a little over thirty years after the inaugural work of Ruth Perry, The Celebrated Mary Astell: An Early English Feminist.”

—Guyonne Leduc, XVII–XVIII