Elements for a Feminist Genealogy of Indignation: Mary Wollstonecraft’s «Most Melancholy Emotions of Sorrowful Indignation»

Abstract

By examining the meaning and function of indignation in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman from a feminist perspective, this article contributes to the philosophical history of the notion. It shows that this foundational text for feminist philosophy offers a complex and nuanced problematisation of indignation. Wollstonecraft gives it a prominent place among the affects that should accompany philosophical activity, while also describing its tensions, limitations, and dangers. Her work thus helps us grasp indignation’s equivocal character.