Because of Beauvoir
Christianity and the Cultivation of Female Genius
By Alison E. Jasper
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Subjects: All Religious Studies, Women's Studies |
Because of Beauvoir does what many say is impossible: it demonstrates how women can flourish, without conflict, while being simultaneously Christian and feminist. Alison Jasper offers a vision of Julia Kristeva's "female genius" as the capacity of women to thrive and cultivate intellect within and across different cultural and theological environments. Using the writings of English women from the 17th through the 21st centuries as living profiles, Jasper draws upon the creative power in the lives of real women to recognize and retrieve a female subjectivity—one that determines how women see and are seen after Simone de Beauvoir.
Part I
1. Beauvoir and The Second Sex
2. Female Genius and Christianity
3. Kristeva and Female Genius
Part II
4. Jane Leade
5. Hannah More
6. Maude Royden
7. Michële Roberts
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
"In a manner that is both scholarly and deeply engaging, Jasper offers her own radical re-interpretation of the creative genius of women. Her work draws our attention to the fact that women have been the 'ingenious' shapers of spiritual knowledge as well as prophetic authors of secular criticism. Contemporary feminists are thus challenged to re-examine what counts as a feminist tradition and what we can learn from women's distinctive interventions in discourses of the divine."
—Heather Walton, Centre for Literature, Theology and the Arts, University of Glasgow
Alison E. Jasper is Lecturer in Critical Religion at the School of Arts and Humanities in the University of Stirling, Scotland. She is the author of The Shining Garment of the Text: Gendered Readings of John's Prologue.
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