Kelly, Gary. Revolutionary Feminism: The Mind and Career of Mary Wollstonecraft. New York (NY): St. Martin's, 1992.

This book address Mary Wollstonecraft’s political ideology and career in relation to the cultural revolution in the late eighteenth century. Kelly begins his book by placing Wollstonecraft in the appropriate political and historical context, discussing the roles of gender and class in the cultural revolution. He explains the effects of “the French Revolution and the cultural revolution that founded the modern state in Britain” (1). Wollstonecraft was able to take part in both of these debates because writing was a major force in both, especially the cultural revolution.

Kelly’s text focuses mainly on Wollstonecraft’s work, making it less biography and more literary and cultural analysis than some other books devoted solely to the eighteenth-century writer and philosopher. Kelly makes an effort to discuss Wollstonecraft’s more minor works, such as her lessons for children which, he says, “show Wollstonecraft’s idea of how the self and social relations are constructed in and through the structure of language” (202). He does, however, include background on Wollstonecraft’s childhood and poor relationship with her father.

Kelly’s text focuses on Wollstonecraft’s role in the two concurrent revolutions and their even greater impact on her work and life. He examines her debates with Edmund Burke over his Reflections on the Revolution in France and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, and Emile as well as some of his other texts. Additionally, he touches upon the role of Joseph Johnson’s revolutionary circle. Primarily, he focuses on Wollstonecraft’s role as the mother of revolutionary feminism in relation to the revolutions which shaped her life and writing.

Entered by Betsey on 13 July 2004 at 2:26 PM.