Introduction

The introduction presents my thesis: Alcott and Rossetti rejected individualistic models of creativity promoted by male literary traditions in their families by embracing their matrilineal communities’ theologies of renunciation, which championed identifying with and serving one’s weaker sistren. I deploy the framework of mysticism, which focuses on the supplicant’s metaphysical experience and relationship with God. My interpretive method resembles how an icon is read by a pilgrim, who achieves communion with subject and artist by participating in shared devotional experience across time and space. This comparative study presents the authors’ visions as underpinned by mystical experience in the matrilineal community.