Felicia Hemans's Sonnets on Female Characters of Scripture

Authors: Mason, Emma; Roberts, Jonathan

Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 39, Numbers 1-2, 1 july 2009 , pp. 72-83(12)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $21.27 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

This essay examines the question of spiritual identity in Felicia Hemans's rewritings of William Wordsworth and the Bible. The argument focuses on Hemans's Female Characters of Scripture, which provide a set of biblical women's narratives lifted out of their original patriarchal biblical settings, and also a parallel moment of emancipation for Hemans as she establishes a poetic voice independent of her role model, William Wordsworth. Particular interest is shown in how this moment of dual emancipation is predicated not on a masculinized Bloomian model of Oedipal strife, but on a feminized model of collaborative coexistence. As men who embody `feminine' qualities of compassion and emotion, Jesus and Wordsworth are depicted by Hemans as empowering identities beyond gender. This essay explores the interplay of biographical, poetic, religious, and emotional experiences through which Hemans negotiates and participates in these emancipatory spiritual identities.

Keywords: Felicia Hemans; William Wordsworth; Bible; Female Characters of Scripture; collaborative; Jesus; Wordsworth; beyond gender; emotional experiences

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Warwick and University of Liverpool

Publication date: 2009-07-01

More about this publication?

A supplement to the Modern Language Review, this journal includes articles and reviews on the language and literature of the English-speaking world. Most of the volumes published so far are 'Special Numbers', collections of between fifteen and eighteen commissioned articles on particular topics, such as the impact of the French Revolution on English writers; literature in the modern media; and colonial and imperial themes in literature.