The Feminist Voice In Christina Rossetti's Poetry

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894), an outstanding English poet of Victorian time, has been often compared with her contemporary Elizabeth Browning. Rossetti's poetry is a special combination of melancholy beauty and rich imagination. Meanwhile,religious symbols and metaphors abound in her verses, which often impart her poetry with a smell of religion. The criticism outside China often focuses on the religious and Pre-Raphaelite influence on her poetry. As a result, there is a huge ignorance of her natural feminist sentiment and voice in her works. More unfortunately, for many years Christina Rossetti has been ignored by Chinese scholars. Almost no research on Christina Rossetti or her works has been done, no monograph written in China. This dissertation strives to discover the feminist voice in Rossetti's verses as so to offer more perspectives to approach the poet and her works.This dissertation includes five parts: Chapter One briefly discusses the poet Christina Rossetti, the value of the research done in this dissertation; gives a brief literature review and states the research approaches. Chapter Two briefly reviews the Victorian"Woman Question"and demonstrates how Rossetti's concerns over this question are expressed through the feminist voice in her verses. Chapter Three tries to challenge William Rossetti's announcement that Christina Rossetti is apolitical by demonstrating her religion-based political attitude that everyone is equal before God and find out the hidden feminist voice which appeals for the equality between man and woman in her poetry. Chapter Four recovers the significance and essence of the Victorian"Sisterhood"and discovers the"sisterhood"behind Christina Rossetti and finds out Rossetti's feminist voice in her masterpiece"Goblin Market". Chapter Five draws the conclusion that Christina Rossetti confronts the traditional image of her as a highly pious disciple who cares nothing about contemporary society or politics. Through analyzing her feminist voices in her verses we can do much to enhance her complexity as a person and offer more proper perspective to approach her texts.