Affiliation:
1. University of British Columbia , Okanagan , Canada
Abstract
Abstract
This essay explores debates among Fabian socialists over the meaning of ‘free love’ taking as its starting point a conflict that arose between Katharine St John Conway and William De Mattos in 1892. Conway’s encounter with De Mattos, it argues, contributed to the development of her understanding of love and its place in Fabian politics. The narratives that Conway wrote in the aftermath of this conflict, including the narrative of her own marriage, attempt to define a feminist ethics of intimacy that manifest socialist principles. The essay claims that Conway expands ideas about love to encompass new ways of thinking about the relationship between individual freedom and communal obligations.
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)