Thinking back through our aunts: Harriet martineau and tradition in women's writing

Virginia Blain*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    IT is now sixty years since Virginia Woolf urged us, in A Room of One's Own (1929,1963, p. 76) to 'think back through our mothers' in the search for our lost female heritage: 'It is useless to go to the great men writers for help.' These words have had an inspiring influence on two generations of women writers, and have been taken up as a rallying cry by historians of "women's writing. While not wishing in any way to derogate Woolf's influence, I would like to suggest that the time has come when we might re-examine her use of such a metaphor of matrilineage in the light of recent developments in feminist theory and gynocentric literary history.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)224-239
    Number of pages16
    JournalWomen
    Volume1
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1990

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Thinking back through our aunts: Harriet martineau and tradition in women's writing'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this