He—she philosophers and other literary bugbears: Mary Robinson's a letter to the women of england

Author: Cross, Ashley

Source: Women's Writing, Volume 9, Number 1, March 2002 , pp. 53-68(16)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

While Mary Robinson's A Letter to the Women of England (1799) has been interpreted primarily as a feminist tract, this article reads it as a defense of the “he-she philosopher” and argues for it as a critical intervention in the construction of literary history. By writing as “a woman speaking to women,” Robinson endeavors to restore a tradition of past women writers and to create a contemporary, shared intellectual history. Read in the context of the two novels she published in the same year, The False Friend and The Natural Daughter , the letter also reveals Robinson's desire to write a narrative that will preserve her reputation as a woman writer of genius. Letter thus positions the woman writer, whose genius combines the mental strength of reason and “exquisite sensibility,” as the “unacknowledged legislator of the world.”

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09699080200200153

Publication date: 2002-03-01