Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture
Starting with Eve, the notion of woman as the Devil’s accomplice is rampant in Christianity and has been used to legitimize the subordination of wives and daughters. In the nineteenth century, rebellious females performed counter-readings; Lucifer was recast as a feminist liberator. In these retellings, Satan is an ally in the struggle against a tyrannical patriarchy supported by God the Father and his male priests. Per Faxneld provides examples in period literary texts, autobiographies, pamphlets, newspaper articles, paintings, sculptures, and consumer culture. By exploring the connections between esotericism, literature, art and the political realm, Satanic Feminism sheds new light on neglected aspects of the intellectual history of feminism, Satanism, and revisionary mythmaking.