Intelligent souls? : feminist orientalism in eighteenth-century English literature /
Cahill, Samara Anne,
Intelligent souls? : feminist orientalism in eighteenth-century English literature / Samara Anne Cahill. - 1 online resource (232 pages) - Transits: literature, thought & culture, 1650-1850 . - Transits (Bucknell University) .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: foreign intelligence -- The negative ideal -- Minding the gap -- The canal of pleasure -- A "foreign and uninteresting" subject -- The "Mahometan strain" -- Epilogue: save our souls?
"Do women have souls? Christianity has traditionally held the soul to be the seat of reason, intelligence, humanity, immortality, and moral agency. But the Book of Genesis never says that God breathed a soul into Eve. Women's souls thus became significant in Reformation satires as Protestants and Catholics debated whether scripture alone or institutional authority ought to determine interpretation. In England, these satires eventually intersected with what scholars have called the "Trinitarian Controversy," a dispute about the nature of Christ that paralleled the interpretive difficulty regarding the nature of women's souls. In order to marginalize heterodox thinkers who claimed that Christ was not of the same substance as God the Father, orthodox Anglicans collapsed the distinction between schism and heresy by comparing heterodox Christians to a sexualized stereotype of Muslim despots. Part of this stereotype was the (erroneous) claim that Muslim doctrine asserted that women did not have souls and could only experience physical, not intellectual, pleasure. Thus, the problem of competing Christian biblical interpretations could be foisted onto a stereotype of Muslim men as brutal, self-serving misogynists. Englishwomen soon took up the trope to argue that a truly enlightened, and necessarily Christian, Englishman would support improvements in women's education--and feminist orientalism was born"--
1684481015 (PDF) 9781684481019 (electronic bk.)
40029230184
22573/ctv1nctr17 JSTOR
Englisch ...
1700-1799
English literature--History and criticism.--18th century
English literature--Women authors--History and criticism.
Orientalism in literature.
Soul in literature.
Women in literature.
Littérature anglaise--Histoire et critique.--18e siècle
Écrits de femmes anglais--Histoire et critique.
Âme dans la littérature.
Femmes dans la littérature.
LITERARY CRITICISM--General.
English literature.
English literature--Women authors.
Orientalism in literature.
Soul in literature.
Women in literature.
Frauenliteratur
Orientbild
Litterature anglaise--Themes, motifs.--18e siecle
Âme--Dans la litterature.
Orientalisme (litterature)
Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
PR448.W65 / C34 2019eb
820.9/3522
Intelligent souls? : feminist orientalism in eighteenth-century English literature / Samara Anne Cahill. - 1 online resource (232 pages) - Transits: literature, thought & culture, 1650-1850 . - Transits (Bucknell University) .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: foreign intelligence -- The negative ideal -- Minding the gap -- The canal of pleasure -- A "foreign and uninteresting" subject -- The "Mahometan strain" -- Epilogue: save our souls?
"Do women have souls? Christianity has traditionally held the soul to be the seat of reason, intelligence, humanity, immortality, and moral agency. But the Book of Genesis never says that God breathed a soul into Eve. Women's souls thus became significant in Reformation satires as Protestants and Catholics debated whether scripture alone or institutional authority ought to determine interpretation. In England, these satires eventually intersected with what scholars have called the "Trinitarian Controversy," a dispute about the nature of Christ that paralleled the interpretive difficulty regarding the nature of women's souls. In order to marginalize heterodox thinkers who claimed that Christ was not of the same substance as God the Father, orthodox Anglicans collapsed the distinction between schism and heresy by comparing heterodox Christians to a sexualized stereotype of Muslim despots. Part of this stereotype was the (erroneous) claim that Muslim doctrine asserted that women did not have souls and could only experience physical, not intellectual, pleasure. Thus, the problem of competing Christian biblical interpretations could be foisted onto a stereotype of Muslim men as brutal, self-serving misogynists. Englishwomen soon took up the trope to argue that a truly enlightened, and necessarily Christian, Englishman would support improvements in women's education--and feminist orientalism was born"--
1684481015 (PDF) 9781684481019 (electronic bk.)
40029230184
22573/ctv1nctr17 JSTOR
Englisch ...
1700-1799
English literature--History and criticism.--18th century
English literature--Women authors--History and criticism.
Orientalism in literature.
Soul in literature.
Women in literature.
Littérature anglaise--Histoire et critique.--18e siècle
Écrits de femmes anglais--Histoire et critique.
Âme dans la littérature.
Femmes dans la littérature.
LITERARY CRITICISM--General.
English literature.
English literature--Women authors.
Orientalism in literature.
Soul in literature.
Women in literature.
Frauenliteratur
Orientbild
Litterature anglaise--Themes, motifs.--18e siecle
Âme--Dans la litterature.
Orientalisme (litterature)
Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
PR448.W65 / C34 2019eb
820.9/3522