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13 - Autobiography

from Part III - Genres and modes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2010

Laura Lunger Knoppers
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
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Summary

Often cited as the most democratic of genres, autobiography in the early modern period crosses the divides of class, religion and political persuasion. At one end of the social spectrum are the autobiographies of Viscountess Elizabeth Mordaunt and Lady Anne Halkett. At the other may be found autobiographies written by women of the servant and labouring classes, such as Barbara Blaugdone, Barbara Scaife and Anne Herring. In terms of spiritual allegiance, distinctive are Catholic writers such as Lady Lucy Knatchbull and Elizabeth Cellier; arresting too, however, are those Protestant writers who span all possible shades of Nonconformity. Politically, autobiographers frequently appear at several removes from one another, a fact which is graphically illustrated in the instances of Lucy Hutchinson and Margaret Cavendish, who chronicle local or national happenings in addition to their own spiritual and material concerns. The range of women writing is matched by the spectrum of forms in which they wrote. As the anthology Her Own Life (the first point of departure for readers investigating the field) made clear, women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries signalled selves across a variety of literary and non-literary genres. The term 'autobiography', then, can be applied to an important body of women's literary and cultural materials which ranges from diary to memoir and from conversion narrative to prophetic statement. This chapter addresses the multiple ways in which early modern women were able to write autobiographically and reflects upon the means whereby the early modern female 'I' might be read with critical currency.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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  • Autobiography
  • Edited by Laura Lunger Knoppers, Pennsylvania State University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Women's Writing
  • Online publication: 28 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521885270.014
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  • Autobiography
  • Edited by Laura Lunger Knoppers, Pennsylvania State University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Women's Writing
  • Online publication: 28 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521885270.014
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Autobiography
  • Edited by Laura Lunger Knoppers, Pennsylvania State University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Women's Writing
  • Online publication: 28 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521885270.014
Available formats
×