ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses life history of Margaret Fuller, a feminist thinker, who was born in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. Fluent in multiple languages, she was able to rely upon her wide reading of the world's classics to teach in multiple venues and to gain entry into the foremost literary circles of her time. In her Conversations for Boston women, she pioneered one of the country's first consciousness-raising groups. In Fuller's feminist masterpiece, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, figures such as Leila became part of a larger pantheon of exalted female images. Feminizing Emerson's model of self-reliance, Fuller demonstrated that goddess images might embody an equivalent imaginative energy. In addition to remapping society's image of female character, Fuller also makes a number of strategic interventions in contemporary social conditions. She includes a controversial discussion of prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women. As a whole, Fuller's feminist treatise aims to release women from ideological and social captivity.
