08-27-2023, 04:11 AM
By Judith Dobson
This thesis explores the Romantic representation of femininity in relation to elements of the Western esoteric tradition. In particular, it discusses the presence of Gnostic themes and gender imagery and the ways in which Romantic writers incorporated these concepts into their works as a means of articulating discourses that could challenge mainstream trends. I propose that Romantic writers engaged with an image of the feminine that elevated the female within the epistemological hierarchies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and whose precedents lie in the traditions of Gnosticism and other esoteric schools of thought. This feminine image resurfaced within dissenting movements like the Moravians, Behmenists and Swedenborgians, who emphasised the feminine aspects of God and Creation.
https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream...sequence=1
This thesis explores the Romantic representation of femininity in relation to elements of the Western esoteric tradition. In particular, it discusses the presence of Gnostic themes and gender imagery and the ways in which Romantic writers incorporated these concepts into their works as a means of articulating discourses that could challenge mainstream trends. I propose that Romantic writers engaged with an image of the feminine that elevated the female within the epistemological hierarchies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and whose precedents lie in the traditions of Gnosticism and other esoteric schools of thought. This feminine image resurfaced within dissenting movements like the Moravians, Behmenists and Swedenborgians, who emphasised the feminine aspects of God and Creation.
https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream...sequence=1