ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the presence of the female missionary character and narrative in the late Victorian period. It argues that the more religious New Woman writers of the fin de siècle, such as Sarah Grand, portrayed themselves and their New Woman characters – especially those who appear as feminist activists and social purity campaigners – as missionaries, working to convert society to their religious feminist cause. Moreover, the chapter argues that even women writers affected by secularisation, such as Olive Schreiner and Margaret Harkness, who struggled with religious doubt and at times identified as agnostics, portrayed their feminist and socialist utopian missions using Christian terms, including elements of the female missionary narrative and character. Indeed, in such an environment, New Woman writers depict feminists’ self-sacrifice as the epitome of missionary heroism. As it explores the Christian forms used by New Woman writers, such as allegory and didacticism, to engage with social issues such as the London slums and Salvationism, the chapter argues that New Woman writers were able to construct a utopian philosophy that drew on older female missionary narratives for its concept of the androgynous New Woman and New Man.
