Wollstonecraft's Mary and Maria: Creating Feminist Propaganda through Fiction

• Main Author: Knutsson, Emma
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR) 2013
• Subjects: Mary Wollstonecraft; feminist propaganda
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-27164

This essay attempts to define Mary Wollstonecraft’s Mary: A Fiction and Maria or The Wrongs of Woman as early feminist propaganda from its historical perspective. Initially, feministic values as well as propaganda are connected to the eighteenth century with the help of contemporary scholars.  These theories are then applied on Wollstonecraft’s Mary: A Fiction and Maria or the Wrongs of Woman, in order to establish these as propaganda. The conclusion reached is that Wollstonecraft had a political and feminist aim when writing her novels as there are many similarities between Mary: A Fiction and Maria or The Wrongs of Woman and her political text A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Thus, it is possible to regard Mary: A Fiction and Maria or The Wrongs of Woman as early feminist propaganda.