SENSIBILITY AND PROGRESS IN MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT’S RATIONALISED “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY”

Éva  ANTAL

doi:10.24193/subbphilo.2023.3.10

Authors

Éva ANTAL Professor PhD, Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Eger, Hungary. Email: Email: antal.eva@uni-eszterhazy.hu. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5245-6470

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphilo.2023.3.10

Keywords:

women writers, Mary Wollstonecraft, sensibility, travelling, sublime, Sterne, Rousseau, reverie.

Abstract

Sensibility and Progress in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Rationalised “Sentimental Journey”. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an ardent believer in individual freedom and self-development; consequently, she frequently discussed the possibilities of women’s education and self-reliance in her writings. Being rather reckless in her life, she was often on the move, not only searching for better life conditions but also following her own impulses in her critical reading. The motif of intellectual mobility features her educational writings, argumentative works, novels, and her last publication, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796) as well. In my paper, I will map the multiplicity of the concept of mobility and elaborate on the senses of escapism in Wollstonecraft’s travel-letters, moving beyond Laurence Sterne’s notion of “a sentimental journey” (A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, 1768). Moreover, in Letters, in her solitary walks and fanciful reveries, not only Wollstonecraft’s inclination to the (natural and textual) sublime but also Rousseau’s ideas on exercise and movement will be detected (cf. Reveries of the Solitary Walker, 1782). On the one hand, my interpretation is contextualised by the late-eighteenth-century view on women’s limitations of “sensibility”, displaying the constraints the age demanded; on the other hand, I intend to place the travelogue in Mary Wollstonecraft’s oeuvre and highlight the synthesising quality of the writing as a piece of “travail” and/or “a labour of love”.

REZUMAT. Sensibilitate și progres în călătoria sentimentală raționalizată a lui Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) credea cu tărie în libertatea individuală și în cultivarea sinelui. Prin urmare, ea vorbește adesea în scrierile sale despre educația și independența femeilor. Nesăbuită de-a lungul vieții sale, Wollestonecraft este adesea surprinsă în mișcare, nu doar în căutarea unei vieți mai bune, ci și în căutarea propriilor sale intuiții, când vine vorba de interpretarea critică a unui text. Motivul mobilității intelectuale apare adesea în scrierile sale despre educație, în lucrările sale filosofice, în romane sale, dar și în ultima sa publicație, „Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark” (1796). În acest articol, îmi propun să trasez multiplele înțelesuri ale conceptului de „mobilitate” și să discut în detaliu ideea de evadare prezentă în scrisorile lui Wollestoncraft, în încercarea de „merge mai departe” decât o face Laurence Sterne atunci când propune noțiunea de „călătorie sentimentală” (A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, 1768). Mai mult decât atât, vom identifica în plimbările singuratice și reveriile fantastice din „Scrisori” înclinația lui Wollstonecraft către sublim (atât natural, cât și textual), dar și ideile lui Rousseau despre mișcare și exercițiu fizic (cf. Reveries of the Solitary Walker, 1782). Pe de-o parte, contextul pe care mă axez este cel al ideilor despre limitele impuse de vârstă asupra sensibilității feminine, care se fac cunoscute la finele secolului al XVIII-lea. Pe de altă parte, îmi propun să încadrez jurnalul de călătorie al lui Wollestonecraft în întreaga sa operă și să scot la lumină faptul că, prin prisma calității sale sintetizatoare, acesta poate fi înțeles ca fiind rezultatul unui „travaliu” sau a unei „osteneli a dragostei.”

Cuvinte-cheie: femei scriitoare, Mary Wollstonecraft, sensibilitate, călătorie, sublim, Sterne, Rousseau, reverie.

Article history: Received 26 May 2023; Revised 22 August 2023; Accepted 11 September 2023; Available online: 30 September 2023; Available print: 30 September 2023.

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