Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Victorian religion and its influence on women writers: a study of four women: Grace Aguilar, Harriet Martineau, George Eliot and Mary Kingsley Thesis How to cite: West-Burnham, Jocelyn (2001). Victorian religion and its influence on women writers: a study of four women: Grace Aguilar, Harriet Martineau, George Eliot and Mary Kingsley. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2000 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000e320 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk (M-GSTP-IcltýE VICTORIAN RELIGION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON WOMEN WRITERS: A Study of Four Women: Grace Aguilar, Harriet Martineau, George Eliot and Mary Kingsley UNlv ofý0 Jocelyn West Burnham B. A. (Hons. ) English Studies, M. Litt. Victorian Studies. fiv t týno h 11 Zo ý- Doctor of Philosophy - D Ar`rL. OF SV ßhiSýoN ý-y- TýRSC Oo0 31.3.2000 v 31 0254604 8 Contents Abstract 1 Chapter One Introduction: gender, religion and autobiography 2 Chapter Two Grace Aguilar 1816-1847 25 Chapter Three Harriet Martineau 1802-1876 60 Chapter Four George Eliot 1819-1880 95 Chapter Five Mary Kingsley 1862-1900 139 Chapter Six Conclusion 174 Bibliography 182 Abstract This thesis is concerned to explore the relationships between religion, gender and questions of self identity in the nineteenth century through an investigation that works to draw connections between the lives and publications of four representative women of the period: Grace Aguilar, Harriet Martineau, George Eliot and Mary Kingsley. The selection of these particular women has been part of the concern of the thesis in its attempt to work both across disciplinary areas (religious studies, literature, history) and to employ theoretical and methodological perspectives which utilise the approaches from cultural studies and feminist scholarship to questions of texts and subjectivities, commonly referred to as `autobiography' within particular socio-historical contexts. In attempting to plot a matrix of associations between the key issues within the debates on religion, gender and questions of self formation and identity it was important to have figures which have survived their own moment of history. These are George Eliot and Mary Kingsley and to include those who have disappearedor who have become marginalised in some way which is the case to be made with respect to Grace Aguilar and Harriet Martineau. The argument of the thesis has worked to establish some of the possible links between religious denominational contexts and the lives and productions of the individual women under consideration. It has also worked to provide a series of arguments that explore the range of overlapping territories and connections between women during the nineteenth century when research has been confined to discipline specific studies. A case study approach on each of the individual women, like the one presentedhere, has the strength of both depth of analysis to their specific contexts as well as providing moments of association and recognition between them. Within this framework of knowledge the arguments offered here are in some ways original insights gathered from previous and wide ranging cultural debates on women in the nineteenth century and their contributions to intellectual discourse. 2 Chapter One Introduction: gender, religion and autobiography The term chronotope, as used by Bakhtin, denotesa configuration of spatial and temporal indicators in a fictional setting where (and when) certain activities and stories take place. One cannot realistically situate historical detail - putting something `in its time' - without appealing to explicit or implicit chronotopes' In the following investigation into the lives and work of four nineteenth century women writers, GraceAguilar, Harriet Martineau,George Eliot, and Mary Kingsley, religion becomes the cultural chronotopewhereby it can be determinedthat `certain activities and stories take place'. Each of the four women under discussionhad different religious belief systemsand backgrounds.These can be seenas the locus of central importanceboth in the formation of themselvesand their ideasabout self-hoodand identity as well as in the subsequentdepictions they then representto the public world in their writings. Michael Holquist acknowledgesthe centrality within the writings of the Russianintellectual Michel Bakhtin of the `total emphasis on particularity, situatedness,location. Thesefactors togethercan then be usedto contemplate questionsof self-hood and henceidentity and issuesof nationality'.2 Bakhtin's work was concernedwith `the intrinsic connectednessof temporal and spatial relationshipsthat are artistically expressedin literature' 3 and it is the point at which theseintersect which is referred to as the chronotope. Holquist statestherefore that the chronotopeequals `the place wherethe knots of the narrative are tied and untied' or where the particular combinationsof time and spaceas they have resultedin historically manifestednarrative forms can be determinedand interpreted. Whilst Bakhtin's own work was largely concernedwith discussionsof literary texts, his methodology,in particular the developmentof ideaswith respectto the chronotopeas a unit of analysis, have now becomeestablished within other areasand disciplines of study. MeaghanMorris endorsesthis with the commentthat `the beautyof the chronotopeis to enable us to think about the cultural interdependenceof spatial and temporal categoriesin terms of ° variable relations'. The four womenunder discussionhere and their writings thus becomethe site at which certain knots of narrative are tied and untied with respectto issuesof religion, genderand self-representation. 1 JamesClifford, "On Collecting Art & Culture", in Simon During (ed.), The Cultural Studies Reader,Routledge, London, 1993,p. 66. 2 Michael Holquist, Bakhtin and His World, Routledge,London, 1990,p. 108. Michael Holquist, Bakhtin and His World, Routledge,London, 1990,p. 109. MeaghanMorris, "On the Beach", in L. Grossberg,C. Nelson & P. Treichler (eds.), Cultural Studies, Routledge,London, 1992,p. 460. 3 Religion, as a discourse and as a framework for social organisation and understanding is seen, in the nineteenth century, as having pivotal importance and is widely acknowledged in many areas of academic research and scholarship. In general terms religion in this historical period has rightly been claimed as a central `shaping force'. ' All avenuesof life and thought can be seen, with hindsight, to have been affected either directly or indirectly by the dominant and prevailing religious ethos and culture of the period. Having said this it can also be suggested that the acknowledgement given to this now by literary scholars, critics and historians in their overviews of the period has resulted in rather slim and particularly located bodies of scholarship. There is then a case to suggest that the secular concerns and orientations of our own times in the late twentieth century have led to the overshadowing or marginalisation of substantive evidence in support of the general overview. Hence, the acknowledgement of religion as a shaping force becomeswritten in the margins of the lives of many of the important and influential thinkers and writers of the period. In many ways the stating of the religious context has acted as a signifier that there is no need for further investigation. It can also be suggestedthat whenreligion is studiedduring this periodthere is concern to acknowledgeand demonstratethe generaltrends and overall movementduring the nineteenth century, in particular, the movementfrom one of belief to doubt. In this way the dominant cognitivemap of the century as a whole is onewhere there is a moveaway from the religious to the secularmodel of thought and social organisation. This overview of the nineteenthcentury knowable can then be usedto fulfil a particular cultural needfor `sense-making'. Of making a period which was one actually markedby complex and diversearguments and debateswithin religious denominations,between religious groups,as well as the phenomenalcultural debates that rangedthroughout the whole of this century. A century markedby profound, rapid and dramaticsocial, economicand political changethat touchedall areasof life. This `shorthand' overviewof the century has also perhapsworked to negateand marginalisethe ways in which these socio-historical changeswere also felt and reacted against by the various religious denominations.What this might also hide would be the ensuingimpact on the lives, thoughts and works of particular individuals with regardto personalfaith as well as with regard to the wider theologicaland doctrinal matters. It is also worth pointing out that wherework in Victorian studieshas beencarried out, particularly in the relationshipof religion and literature,the focus for attentionhas tendedto be concentratedupon the `Great Men of Letters' rather than upon the `equivalent' female experienceand representation.Such work to date would, of course,include those writings on Jim Obelkevich, Lyndal Roper& RaphaelSamuel (eds. ), Disciplines of Faith: Studiesin Religion,