Writing for equality: a comparative study of the writings of Wollstonecraft, Schreiner and Woolf on the status of women
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Date
2007-08
Authors
Morgan, Yvette Margaret
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
Patriarchy has tainted the mind of society, thereby creating gender
discrimination and inequality. Until recently, this bias against women
filtered down to women writers too. This MA dissertation is a
comparative study of the works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Olive Schreiner
and Virginia Woolf in their socio-historical context. While Wollstonecraft
and Woo If lived in Britain, Schreiner spent most of her life in South
Africa. It is interesting to observe that these three writers, working in
two different countries, Britain and South Africa, shared strong ideas on
women and education, double standards in society, professions for
women and the roles of women in society. While sharing ideas, each
writer lived in her own unique milieu and thus held certain beliefs more
strongly than others. By evaluating women's literature dating from the
late 18th century, this dissertation examines the evolution of women's
situation in society and obtains, for the reader, a sense of what social
issues were relevant at the time and how these issues have changed
and/or stayed the same. The three authors chosen were also
influenced by their predecessors' thoughts, which is clear in their
literature. By looking at their work in the context of society and the
influence of previous feminist literature, the reader can see the power
that their thoughts and words hold. Though some of the problems
about which these authors wrote so tellingly (for example, inequality
under the law) have become redundant in Western society, many of the
issues addressed in their writing have formed the baseline of feminist
beliefs and are still very relevant today.
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Keywords
Olive Schreiner, Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia WooIf, Women's Rights, Sexual Double Standards, Women and Education, Women and the Professions, Women in the 1700s, Women in the 1800s, Women in the 1900s, Woolf, Virginia,1882-1941 -- Criticism and interpretation, Wollstonecraft, Mary,1759-1797 -- Criticism and interpretation, English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism, Women and literature -- Great Britain, Dissertation (M.A. (English and Classical Languages))--University of the Free State, 2007