The Wild Girl
The Wild Girl (later issued as The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene) is a 1984 novel by
Passion, from the perspective of Mary Magdalene.[1] The story incorporates elements of a Gnostic tradition that speak of a sexual relationship between Jesus and Mary.[2] For this reason, the book has been considered controversial and even blasphemous.[3]
The central theme of the work is androgyny. Roberts attempts to incorporate the female perspective into a largely male-dominated tradition. The author wrote of her book that, "I imagined Mary Magdalene as Christ's lover because I wanted to imagine a Christianity that might have developed differently, and valued women equally with men."[4] Some feminist critics of the work have panned the romantic interaction between Mary and Jesus, with Patricia Duncker calling it laughable.[5]
References
- ^ Rosemary White, "Michèle Roberts: The Wild Girl ", The Literary Encyclopedia, 20 February 2004.
- ISBN 0-415-21709-1.
- ISBN 0-313-31030-0.
- ^ Roberts, Michèle (14 April 2006). "Equal in the eyes of God?". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
- ISBN 3-03911-054-3.