She rejected the virgin birth, original sin, the atonement and providence. In 1926, she made the dangerously unorthodox claim that Christianity must be regarded not as a final revelation but as merely a developmental phase. She was essentially anti-dogmatic and sometimes actually blasphemous. Although she considered herself a Christian, West often claimed that God was wicked or ineffectual. West was a dangerous woman in many ways since she defined herself in opposition to all generic qualifications in terms of writing, gender, politics and religion. She took the name from Ibsen whose plays portrayed the rebellious spirit of the New Woman. When nineteen-year-old Cicely Fairfield renamed herself Rebecca West in 1912, twentieth century literature and society gained a unique and powerful female voice. Rebecca West famously remarked that ‘people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute’. Twelve writers from the poster will be featured as part of the Dangerous Women Project, in a contribution each month by a member of Scottish PEN.
Scottish PEN has produced a revised version of its 100 Scottish Women Writers poster. An important strand of PEN’s work is the support of women writers, so often marginalised. Scottish PEN is the Scottish centre of PEN International, a worldwide organisation committed to promoting literature and protecting freedom of expression.
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