ABSTRACT
Gail Hamilton version of the jeremiad is strongly gendered in both form and content. Her sometimes awkward use of a traditionally male form highlights the limitations of feminine authority in nineteenth-century discourse, and her criticisms and prescriptions emphasize her struggle to balance the consensus that is central to the form with her own belief in the importance of gender difference. A close look at Hamilton’s efforts to claim and refuse authority in her jeremiads highlights the opportunities and problems involved when women adopt what George Landow terms the voice of the public “sage”. Hamilton “genders” her jeremiad, in part, by addressing men and women distinctly and differently in many of her essays. This difference appears clearly in two of her early pieces, published during the 1860s. “Men and Women” appeared in Hamilton’s first collection of essays, Country Living and Country Thinking.
