‘The blind side of the heart’: Protestants, politics, and patriarchy in the novels of F. E. Crichton
‘The blind side of the heart’: Protestants, politics, and patriarchy in the novels of F. E. Crichton
This chapter focuses on the life and literature of Mrs. F. E. Crichton of Belfast. Through close readings of her novella ThePrecepts of Andy Saul (1908) and her novel The Blind Side of the Heart (1915), this chapter examines the trajectory of Crichton’s career and demonstrates how the intertwined influences of contemporary politics and patriarchy shaped the forces and themes in her fiction. It suggests that the influence of Crichton’s father, Thomas Sinclair (Junior), as well as the increasingly masculine face of Ulster unionism are inextricable from any analysis of Crichton’s novels. A feminist reading of Crichton’s writing suggests that stress-points in her narratives occur where the author is forced to choose between a denouement where female autonomy is a possibility and one in which the political codes of the day must be preserved for the greater good.
Keywords: F. E. Crichton, The Precepts of Andy Saul, The Blind Side of the Heart, Ulster Presbyterianism, Protestantism, Ulster Unionism, Migration
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