During her brief career she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but appeared to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.
Leben und Werk
After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement. Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts. She died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who became an accomplished writer and the author of Frankenstein.
Wollstonecraft's widower published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's advocacy of women's equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important.
Wichtige Fakten
- Gestorben: 1797
- Fachgebiet: Literature
Vermächtnis und Wirkung
The influence of Mary Wollstonecraft extends far beyond her own lifetime. She fundamentally shaped literature and the written word, and her written works and literary innovations remain foundational to this day.
Though she passed away in 1797, her ideas continue to be studied, debated, and built upon by scholars and practitioners worldwide.
Mehr brillante Köpfe in Literature entdecken
Entdecken Literature GeniusesVerwandte Artikel
Mehr entdecken
Vollständiges Profil von Mary Wollstonecraft lesen
Profil von Mary Wollstonecraft ansehen →