The Maternal Image of God in Victorian Literature
The Maternal Image of God in Victorian Literature

Author: Rebecca Styler

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-10

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1000892999

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This book is the study of a religious metaphor: the idea of God as a mother, in British and US literature 1850–1915. It uncovers a tradition of writers for whom divine motherhood embodied ideals felt to be missing from the orthodox masculine deity. Elizabeth Gaskell, Josephine Butler, George Macdonald, Frances Hodgson Burnett and Charlotte Perkins Gilman independently reworked their inherited faith to create a new symbol that better met their religious needs, based on ideal Victorian notions of motherhood and ‘Mother Nature’. Divine motherhood signified compassion, universal salvation and a realised gospel of social reform led primarily by women to establish sympathetic community. Connected to Victorian feminism, it gave authority to women’s voices and to ‘feminine’ cultural values in the public sphere. It represented divine immanence within the world, often providing the grounds for an ecological ethic, including human–animal fellowship. With reference also to writers including Charlotte Brontë, Anna Jameson, Charles Kingsley, Elizabeth Charles, Theodore Parker, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Baker Eddy and authors of literary utopias, this book shows the extent of maternal theology in Victorian thought and explores its cultural roots. The book reveals a new way in which Victorian writers creatively negotiated between religious tradition and modernity.

The Maternal Image of God in Victorian Literature
The Maternal Image of God in Victorian Literature

Author: Rebecca Styler

Publisher:

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781032509938

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"This book is the study of a religious metaphor: the idea of God as a mother, in British and US literature 1850-1915. It uncovers a tradition of writers for whom divine motherhood embodied ideals felt to be missing from the orthodox masculine deity. Elizabeth Gaskell, Josephine Butler, George Macdonald, Frances Hodgson Burnett and Charlotte Perkins Gilman independently reworked their inherited faith to create a new symbol that better met their religious needs, based on ideal Victorian notions of motherhood and 'mother nature'. Divine motherhood signified compassion, universal salvation, and a realised gospel of social reform led by women primarily to establish sympathetic community. Connected to Victorian feminism, it gave authority to women's voices and to 'feminine' cultural values in the public sphere. It represented divine immanence within the world, often providing the grounds for an ecological ethic, including human-animal fellowship. With reference to writers including Anna Jameson, Charles Kingsley, Elizabeth Charles, Theodore Parker, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Baker Eddy and authors of literary utopias, this book shows the extent of maternal theology in Victorian thought, and its cultural roots. The book reveals a new way in which Victorian writers creatively negotiated between religious tradition and modernity"--

Gender, Crime, and Murder in Victorian England
Gender, Crime, and Murder in Victorian England

Author: Anna Kay

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-25

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1000933075

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Gender, Crime, and Murder in Victorian England seeks to provide a comprehensive examination of the notorious Mannings' ‘Bermondsey murder’, and its wider implications in Victorian criminal narrative and popular culture. Exploring the ongoing textual afterlife of Maria Manning, including significant literary contributions by Charles Dickens through his characters Mademoiselle Hortense and Madame Defarge, this volume illuminates representations both echoed and challenged in mid-nineteenth-century conceptions of gender, sexuality, class, nationality, religion, and criminality. This volume also examines the five largely forgotten cases of female homicide from the same year and the imagined discourse perpetuated in fictional personifications. Utilising a wide breadth of literary and historical research, this volume provides readers with a thorough understanding of the various cultural implications of crime and gender in the Victorian period to be read, remembered, and reinterpreted today. Located simultaneously in the fields of feminist, historical, and literary criticism, this volume is invaluable to students of nineteenth-century literature and culture, and researchers with an interest in criminology and media culture.

The Bridge of History Over the Gulf of Time
The Bridge of History Over the Gulf of Time

Author: Thomas Cooper

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2023-02-02

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 3382108445

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Reprint of the original. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

The Christian Goddess
The Christian Goddess

Author: Bonnie Gaarden

Publisher: Government Institutes

Published: 2011-04-29

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1611470099

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The Christian Goddess: Archetype and Theology in the Fantasies of George MacDonald, examines this British Victorian writer's employment of female figures to represent Deity. Such symbolism is extremely unusual for a Christian author of this period and anticipates the efforts of many modern theologians to develop an image of God as Mother. Bonnie Gaarden reads the goddess-figures in MacDonald's fantasies as both archetypes of the collective unconscious and as emblems articulating MacDonald's unique Christian theology, which is Trinitarian, Neo-Platonic, mystical and universalist. The goddesses become the central figures around which the author develops her interpretations of MacDonald's adult fantasy-novels, his children's books and some of his fairy tales. These readings discover MacDonald's ideas about God and the nature of good and evil, models of spiritual and psychological development that foreshadow the theories of Carl Jung and Eric Neumann, and acerbic commentary on the values and customs of Victorian society and religion. According to The Christian Goddess, MacDonald's Romantic belief in God's self-revelation in Nature led him to create Nature-mothers (such as the Green Lady in 'The Golden Key' and Lilith's Eve) which evoke both the Great Mother archetype described by Eric Neumann, and the modern neopagan Great Mother as developed in the works of James Frazer, Robert Graves, and Marija Gimutas. MacDonald dramatized his view of evil and its cure in the title character of Lilith, a Terrible Mother archetype historically embodied in the Hindu goddess Kali. MacDonald's notion of the world as Keat's 'vale of Soulmaking,' also elaborated by religious philosopher John Hick, is conveyed by Magic Cauldron archetypes in The Wise Woman, 'The Gray Wolf,' and Lilith. Muse-figures in Phantastes and At the Back of the North Wind express MacDonald's conviction that a 'right imagination' is the voice of God, while Divine Children in The Wise Woman and 'The Golden Key' communicate his belief that 'true childhood' is the Divine nature. The great-grandmother in the Princess books, a personification of the multi-dimensional activity of Divine Wisdom, springs from the Judeo-Christian Sophia and the classical Athena, while Kore figures in The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, and Phantastes re-present the transforming descents of Persephone and Christ. This book shows MacDonald's fantasies as a chronological bridge, anchored in the traditions of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, incorporating the teachings of Christian mysticism and theistic Romanticism, and linking to the contemporary concerns in Western society that have given birth to the New Age. The Christian goddess portrayed in these fantasies may strike the reader as a Deity whose time has come.

The Wizard of Oz as American Myth
The Wizard of Oz as American Myth

Author: Alissa Burger

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2012-03-27

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 078646643X

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Since the publication of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, authors, filmmakers, and theatrical producers have been retelling and reinventing this uniquely American fairy tale. This volume examines six especially significant incarnations of the story: Baum's original novel, the MGM classic The Wizard of Oz (1939), Sidney Lumet's African American film musical The Wiz (1978), Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's Broadway hit Wicked: A New Musical (2003), and the SyFy Channel miniseries Tin Man (2007). A close consideration of these works demonstrates how versions of Baum's tale are influenced by and help shape notions of American myth, including issues of gender, race, home, and magic, and makes clear that the Wizard of Oz narrative remains compelling and relevant today.

Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows (Routledge Revivals)
Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows (Routledge Revivals)

Author: George P. Landow

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-07-11

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1317634969

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The importance of typology in the study of early modern literature has long been accepted, yet students of Victorian culture have paid little attention to it. First published in 1980, this study demonstrates how biblical typology, an apparently arcane interpretative mode, had profound effects on the secular culture of the Victorian age: its art, literature and thought. George Landow considers the way in which the average English believer learned to read their Bible in terms of the types and shadows of Christ, the various ways in which Victorian poetry and hymns employed certain imagery, and the use of typological symbolism in narrative poetry, prose fiction, dramatic monologue and non-fiction. In a concluding chapter, he investigates the particularly complex, and often ironic, combinations of typological image and typological structure.

The Maiden, Mother, Matriarch
The Maiden, Mother, Matriarch

Author: Conrad Riker

Publisher: Conrad Riker

Published: 101-01-01

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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Are you feeling lost in a world that tells you to forget your maternal instincts and embrace the "strong independent woman" narrative? Are you tired of feeling like you have to choose between your career and your family? Are you wondering how to instill traditional values in your children while still adapting to modern society? "The Maiden, Mother, Matriarch" is the ultimate guide for rediscovering the archetype of the good mother and embracing your natural instincts as a woman. In this book, author Conrad Riker explores: - The importance of traditional roles within the family structure and the consequences of abandoning them. - How to preserve and pass on cultural customs, especially those related to child-rearing and household management. - The relationship between the mother archetype and religious beliefs, specifically Christianity and its figure of Mary as the virgin mother. - The psychological and emotional consequences of abandoning traditional roles and adopting more masculine or androgynous identities. - The experiences and perspectives of women who have chosen to embrace traditional roles within their personal lives and relationships. Don't let the world force you into becoming something you're not. Embrace your maternal instincts and learn how to balance career, family, and tradition. If you want to rediscover the lost art of being a good mother, buy "The Maiden, Mother, Matriarch" today!

Embodying the Tactile in Victorian Literature
Embodying the Tactile in Victorian Literature

Author: Ann Gagné

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-01-28

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1793617317

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Embodying the Tactile in Victorian Literature: Touching Bodies/Bodies Touching explores the importance of sensory studies in mid to late-Victorian literature. Ann Gagné reconciles the social and cultural issues surrounding embodiment, particularly gendered embodiment, through the lens of tactility and how touch can function as embodied residue. The main focus on tactility highlights bodily interactions through narrative description and positions lived experience as narrated and witnessed on the body through touch. By exploring four distinct types of tactility—reciprocal touch, architectural touch, self-touch, and telepathic touch—found in Victorian literature, Gagné reveals a larger social and cultural focus on ethics, care, the built environment, and pedagogy. Through analyses of more canonical texts such as Goblin Market alongside lesser known works by canonical authors such as Wilkie Collins’s “Mrs. Zant and the Ghost,” Gagné demonstrates how these same sensory considerations continue to be important today.