Mary Astell

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Mary Astell (born November 12, 1666 in Newcastle upon Tyne , † May 11, 1731 ) was an English writer , rhetorician and philosopher . She advocated giving women the same educational opportunities as men with equal abilities and called for the abolition of inequality in marriage. Because of this, Astell is considered to be the "first English feminist ".

Life

Few of Mary Astell's biographical data have survived. As her biographer Ruth Perry explains, as a woman she had little access to the world of commerce, politics or justice. Little information about their lives can be gleaned from the public registers; she owned a house for several years, had a bank account, and helped set up a charity school in Chelsea. Only four of her letters have survived, and only because they were written to important men of their time or nobles.

Mary Astell was born on November 12, 1666 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her parents were Peter and Mary (Errington) Astell. Her parents had two other children, William, who died as a child, and Peter, their younger brother. She was baptized in St. John's Church in Newcastle. Her family belonged to the upper middle class and lived in Newcastle during Astell's early childhood. Her father, a conservative, royalist Anglican , ran a coal factory there . As a woman, Astell did not receive any formal schooling but was privately tutored by her uncle, a former pastor named Ralph Astell. He was removed from office by the Church of England after being exposed to alcoholism. Despite his impeachment, he was a member of the Cambridge-based philosophical school, which centered its teachings around philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoras. Astell's father died when she was twelve years old without leaving her any bridal money. The remaining fortune was invested in the education of Astell's brother, Astell and her mother moved to Astell's aunt.

After the deaths of her mother and aunt in 1688, Astell moved to Chelsea, London , where she met a circle of literary and influential women, including Lady Mary Chudleigh, Elizabeth Thomas, Judith Drake, Elizabeth Elstob and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu belonged. They helped her develop and publish her work. She knew the Archbishop of Canterbury , William Sancroft, who was known for his charitable work. Sancroft helped Astell financially and put them in touch with their future publisher. After retiring from the public eye in 1709, Astell founded a Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge- funded school for girls in Chelsea. She created the school schedule herself, with further financial support from her sponsors Lady Catherine Jones and Lady Elizabeth Hastings. In 1727, Lady Catherine Jones invited her to live on her property. She spent her final years there until her death in 1731. Astell died in 1731, a few months after an amputation of her cancerous right breast. In her last days she refused to see her acquaintances and stayed in a room with her coffin, only thinking of God. She was buried in the Chelsea Church cemetery in London.

Work and effect

Astell was one of the first English women to advocate that women should be just as rational as men and therefore deserve the same education. Her Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest , first published in 1694, included the draft of a women's academy in which women could live a life of the spirit.

In 1700 Astell published Some Reflections upon Marriage . Astell criticizes the basic philosophical assumptions about the institution of marriage in England in the 17th century and warns women of the dangers of a quick and ill-considered marriage. The Duchess of Mazarin is used as an example of the dangers of poor upbringing and unequal marriage. Astell argues that good education can help women make better marriage decisions and face the challenges of married life.

Astell warns that inequality in intelligence, character, and fate could lead to misery, and recommends that marriage should be based on long-lasting friendship as opposed to short-lived attraction. A woman should look for a man with a high understanding, a righteous spirit, and a sense of the greatest possible equality. Astell elaborated on these issues in a response to the critics in the third edition of Some Reflections upon Marriage .

Astell was remembered for her ability to debate freely with the men and women of her time and, most importantly, for her pioneering methods of renegotiating the position of women in society. Their method was not based on the consolidation of the argument through historical evidence, as had previously been the case, but on the philosophical debate. Her thinking was influenced by the work of René Descartes , in particular by his theory of dualism. The idea of ​​the separation of mind and body allowed Astell to spread the idea that women, like men, have the faculty of reason and therefore the right to equal treatment. This view is reflected in her question: “ If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? "(German:" If all men are born free, why are all women born as slaves? ")

Books

Mary Astell: A Serious Proposal . Third edition, 1696

Astell's best-known works are A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (1694) and A Serious Proposal, Part II (1697). In these books she developed her plan to establish a new type of institution for women, which consisted in providing women with a religious and secular upbringing and education. Astell suggests expanding women's career options beyond mother and nun . Astell wanted all women to have the same opportunities as men to spend their lives with God, and she believed that this was why they needed to be educated to understand their experiences. The nun-style training she proposed was designed to enable women to live in a sheltered atmosphere free from the influences of external patriarchal society.

Your proposal was never implemented because critics felt it was "too Catholic" for English society. Their ideas were later processed satirically by Jonathan Swift . While the writer Daniel Defoe admired the first part of her proposal, he believed that her recommendations were too impractical. Patricia Springborg notes that Defoe's own recommendation for an academy for women, which he elaborated in his essay Upon Projects , was not very different from Astell's original suggestion. Astell remained a great intellectual force in London's educated classes despite the criticism.

A few years later Astell published the second part of A Serious Proposal , in which she carried out her vision of training women for court ladies. It broke with the contemporary rhetorical style in which speakers spoke in front of an audience for the purpose of education, and instead established a conversational style that offered the upbringing of "neighbors" as equals. In her portrayal, she offered a rhetoric that, as an art, did not require male training to be learned. So she listed the means by which a woman was enabled to acquire the skills necessary to learn logic. This established Astell as a skilled rhetorician.

In the early 1690s, Astell entered into correspondence with John Norris von Bemerton after reading Norris' Practical Discourses upon several Divine subjects . The letters illuminate Astell's thoughts on God and theology. Norris was of the opinion that the letters were worthy of publication and published them, with Astell's consent, as Letters Concerning the Love of God (1695). Her name was not mentioned in the book, but her identity was quickly recognized and her rhetorical style was highly praised by her contemporaries.

Works

In German translation

  • Mary Astell: The Education of Women . In: Ursula I. Meyer (Ed.): The world of the philosopher . 3rd volume. Enlightenment and revolutionary departure . Ein-Fach-Verlag, Aachen 1997, ISBN 3-928089-18-8 , pp. 71-84.
  • Mary Astell: Reflections and Suggestions. A voice of the English restoration (translated and introduced by Petra Altschuh-Riederer). Ein-Fach-Verlag, Aachen 2000, ISBN 3-928089-28-5 .

In English (original)

  • A Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest. By a Lover of Her Sex . 1694; Part 1, excerpt, 1696 , quoted from the annotated edition of 2002 (see below), pp. 59–62; Part 2, Chapter 1, excerpt, 1697 , cited from the annotated edition of 2002, pp. 127–130; Astell, Mary. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies . Edited by Patricia Springborg. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2002.
  • Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Occasioned by the Duke and Dutchess of Mazarine's Case; Which is Also Considered. London: Printed for John Nutt, near Stationers-Hall. 1700
  • A Fair Way with Dissenters and their Patrons. Not writ by Mr. L - - - - - y, or any other Furious Jacobite, whether Clergyman or Layman; but by a very Moderate Person and Dutiful Subject to the Queen . 1704; Extract , quoted from an annotated edition from 1996, pp. 93-94.
  • An Impartial Inquiry into the Causes of Rebellion and Civil War in this Kingdom: In an examination of Dr. Kennett's sermon, Jan 31st 1703/4. And Vindication of the Royal Martyr . 1704; Excerpt , quoted from an anthology from 2000, pp. 58–59
  • The Character of the Wisest Men. Re-printed and published by the Author's Friends . 1704
  • Moderation Truly Stated: or, a review of a late pamphlet, entitul'd Moderation a virtue, or the occasional conformist justify'd from the imputation of hypocricy. Wherein this justification is further consider'd . 1704
  • Letters concerning the love of God, between the author of the proposal to the ladies and Mr. John Norris: Wherein his late Discourse, shewing, That it ought to be intire and exclusive of all other Loves, is further Cleared and Justified. Published by J. Noris, MA Rector of Bemerton near Sarum. The second edition, corrected by the authors, with some few things added . 1705; LETTER V. To Mr. Norris, excerpt, first edition of 1695 , cited from 2005 edition, pp. 87-90
  • The Christian religion, as profess'd by a daughter of the Church of England . 1705; Excerpts from various issues
  • Bart'lemy fair: or an inquiry after with: in which due respect is had to a letter concerning enthusiasm, to my Lord ***. By Mr. Wotton . 1709
  • An inquiry after wit: wherein the trifling arguing and impious raillery of the late Earl of Shaftesbury, in his Letter concerning enthusiasm, and other profane writers, are fully answer'd and justly exposed . 1722
  • (Attributed to) An essay in defense of the female sex. In which are incerted the characters of a pedant, a squire, a beau, a virtuoso, a poetaster, a city-critick, & c. In a letter to a lady. Written by a lady . 1696
  • (Attributed to) Six familiar essays upon marriage, crosses in love, sickness, death, loyalty, and friendship, written by a lady . 1696

Research literature

  • Therese Boos Dykeman: Mary Astell (1666-1731) . In this. (Ed.): The Neglected Canon: Nine Women Philosophers. First to the Twentieth Century . Springer, Dordrecht 1999, pp. 143-165.
  • John A. Dussinger: Mary Astell's Revisions of “Some Reflections upon Marriage (1730)” . In: The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America , 107.1 (2013), pp. 49-79. (argues that Samuel Richardson had a hand in it)
  • Bridget Hill: The First English Feminist: “Reflections Upon Marriage” and Other Writings by Mary Astell . Gower Publishing, Aldershot 1986.
  • Bridget Hill: A Refuge from Men: The Idea of ​​a Protestant Nunnery . In: Past & Present , No. 117, 1987, pp. 107-130.
  • Regina James: Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, Or, Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft Compared . In: Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture , 5, 1976, pp. 121-139.
  • Joan K. Kinnaird: Mary Astell and the Conservative Contribution to English Feminism . In: Journal of British Studies , 19, 1979, pp. 53-79.
  • Joan K. Kinnaird: Mary Astell: Inspired by Ideas. (1668-1731) . In: Dale Spender (ed.): Feminist Theorists . The Womens Press, London 1983, pp. 28-39.
  • William Kolbrener, Michal Michelson (Eds.): Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith . Ashgate, Aldershot 2007.
  • Katherine Pepper-Smith: Beating a light and frothy mind. Mary Astell's conception of human nature and her educational recommendations . In: Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky u. a. (Ed.): 1789/1989. The revolution (did not) take place . Edition Diskord, Tübingen 1989, pp. 226–243.
  • Ruth Perry : The Celebrated Mary Astell: An Early English Feminist . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1986.
  • Marit Rullmann : Mary Astell . In: Marit Rullmann (Ed.): Philosophinnen. From ancient times to the Enlightenment . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, pp. 198-203.
  • Kathrin Schlierkamp: Mind the Gap: On the relationship between body and soul in Marie le Jars de Gournay, Elisabeth von der Pfalz, Anne Conway and Mary Astell . One-subject publishing house, Aachen 2012.
  • Florence M. Smith: Mary Astell . Columbia University Press, New York 1916.
  • Patricia Springborg: Mary Astell (1666-1731), Political Writings . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996.
  • Patricia Springborg: Mary Astell and John Lockel . In: The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1650 to 1750 . Edited by Steven Zwicker. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998.
  • Patricia Springborg: Mary Astell: Theorist of Freedom from Domination . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005.
  • Kathleen M. Squadrito: Mary Astell . In: Waithe, Mary Ellen (Ed.): A History of Women Philosophers. Volume 3. Kluwer Academics, Dordrecht 1991, pp. 87-99.
  • Kamille Stone Stanton: 'Affliction, the Sincerest Friend': Mary Astell's Philosophy of Women's Superiority through Martyrdoml . In: Prose Studies: History, Theory, Criticism , 29, 2007, pp. 104-114.
  • Christine Sutherland: The Eloquence of Mary Astell . University of Calgary Press, Calgary 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jennie Batchelor: Mary Astell . In: The Literary Encyclopedia , March 21, 2002 (only the beginning is accessible without payment); Retrieved May 18, 2014
  2. ↑ Perry: The Celebrated Mary Astell . P. 22.
  3. ↑ Perry: The Celebrated Mary Astell . P. 23.
  4. ^ Smith: Mary Astell . P. 2.
  5. ^ Sutherland, The Eloquence of Mary Astell , xi.
  6. ↑ Mary Astell . ( February 21, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive ) Oregon State
  7. ↑ Jane Donawerth (Ed.): Rhetorical theory by women before 1900. An anthology . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2002, p. 100.
  8. ↑ Astell, Mary . Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  9. ↑ Alice Sowaal: Mary Astell . In: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), plato.stanford.edu
  10. ↑ Jane Donawerth (Ed.): Rhetorical theory by women before 1900. An anthology . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2002, p. 100.
  11. ^ Mary Astell: Women in the Literary Marketplace . rmc.library.cornell.edu
  12. ↑ Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Occasioned by the Duke and Duchess of Mazarine's Case; Which is Also Considered . Printed for John Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, London 1700. digital.library.upenn.edu
  13. ^ Mary Astell: Some Reflections Upon Marriage. With additions. The Fourth Edition, 1730, p. 150. archive.org
  14. ↑ Mary Astell . The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  15. ^ Mary Astell: Patricia Springborg (Ed.): A Serious Proposal to the Ladies . Broadview Press, Peterborough 2002, p. 15.
  16. ↑ Jane Donawerth (Ed.): Rhetorical theory by women before 1900. An anthology . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2002, p. 101.
personal data
SURNAME Astell, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer, rhetorician and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1666
PLACE OF BIRTH Newcastle upon Tyne
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1731