Learning through the Ages: An Epistemological Journey

This paper explores how three nineteenth-century women writers guided my thinking about education, oppression and spirituality during different decades of my twentieth-century life. In order to re-collect my epistemological journey, a process that requires analysis and reflection, the paper combines the critical lens of feminist theory with the genre of the exploratory personal narrative. Charlotte Bronte ("Jane Eyre") wrote about finding a voice of resistance in order to find independence, an essential thing to learn when one is 20 years old. Sarah Orne Jewett ("The Country of the Pointed Firs") looked outward, an essential thing to realize when learning how to write and love at 30 years old. Harriet Jacobs ("Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl") knew of the complexity of life and truth, the greatest thing of all to learn as a parent and teacher. These women, through their writing and ideas, guided how I came to know and understand the world. (Contains 23 footnotes.)