Review: Angharad Eyre, Women’s Writing and Mission in the Nineteenth Century: Jane Eyre’s Missionary Sisters

Distinguishing between the textual figure of the 'female missionary' and the writing of real 'missionary women (p. 19), Eyre's book charts the pervasive influence of female missionary narratives. [...]active work and theological thought were suppressed in favour of meek selfsacrifice. While she is sceptical of second-wave feminism's rejection of religion, she retains notions of 'empowerment', 'authority' and 'agency' as key criteria for reading women's writing. At the end of the book, there is a brief discussion of missionary '[w] omen's construction of the "heathen" woman as victim (p.216) in order to produce their own authority.