George Eliot: A Feminist Precursor

George Eliot (1819-1880), a prominent Victorian writer, was one of the many writers in the history of British literature who had committed themselves to the writing of novels and who had established their fame through this genre. She developed psychological realistic representation and employed modernist techniques and forms in her novel writing. Her moral and religious theme, the complexity and intellectuality of her works have always been the major concerns of the critics.From Eliot's time onward, critics have focused on the tragic fates and representation of women in George Eliot's works. However, so far critics have only discussed the reasons in terms of the author or the heroines in the texts, without exploring the particular social, economic, and cultural situation of the author and texts. The present research explores the strategies Eliot adopted in the presenting of her feminist consciousness by employing post-modernist feminist and narratological theory. As is known, Post-modernist feminist studies have made extensive use of Susan Lanser's "Narrative Voice" analysis. Susan Lanser considers "the social properties and political implications of narrative voice", claiming that "female voice"—the grammatical gender of the narrator—"is a site of ideological tension made visible in textual practice". English society in the nineteenth century is hierarchical with a double standard culture. A strict literary double-standard is the natural consequence of this culture that devalues feminine discourse in the public sphere. Like everything else, narrative voice corresponds to the cultural needs of Victorian society. Because narrative voice carries the burdens of Victorian gender polarization, in its representation of male or female language and the expectations, it raises about masculine or feminine plots. Women writers in the nineteenth century adopted various strategies to establish their narrative authority while remain conforming to the social and narrative norms.Eliot was neither an overt feminist theorist nor a feminist activist. Throughout her life, she never studied any feminist theories, nor did she formulate any theory herself. But she lived a rebellious life, and she devoted her life to her writing career.