Chapter 7 - Johnson and Gender

Summary

Despite having the reputation of a misogynist for most of the twentieth century, Samuel Johnson has gradually been recognized as perhaps one of the most progressive male writers on the topic of women’s education. What does this say about Johnson’s position on gender? A cross-genre analysis of Johnson’s writing – dictionary entries, periodical essays, the verse tragedy Irene, the philosophical oriental tale Rasselas, and the critical biography of John Milton in the Lives of the Poets – demonstrates that while Johnson was certainly situated within the heteronormative framework characteristic of eighteenth-century England, and while his Christian chauvinism made his defense of Christian women (and Christian men) not fully intersectional, his defense of women as moral agents was a resource and reinforcement for eighteenth-century women writers.