Victorian Autobio
Victorian Autobiography
Definition (Working)
"Prior to the Victorian era the most widely known nineteenth-century essay in English on autobiography was John Foster's "On a Man's Writing Memoirs of Himself" first published in 1805," (Victorian Autobiography 178); "In these words come nearest to defining autobiography--the serious record for the progress of character. The justification of such autobiography is, of course, to know one's character more adequately and to improve it: "One of the greatest difficulties in the way of executing the proposed task (writing an autobiography) will have been caused by the extreme deficiency of that self-observation, which, to any extent, is no common employment, either of youth or any later age. Only by the deliberate attempt to observe ourselves can we know :what our character was, and what it was likely to become" and "We may regard our past life as a continued, though irregular course of education, "and the discipline has consisted of instruction, companionship, reading, and the diversified influences of the world" (179).
Goes on to talk about #confession and how autobiography is not supposed to make a person look morally good.
Should not be "day-by-day accounts such as diaries, but should be written after longer intervals of time have elapsed"
Don't criticize yourself, just record observations and opinions (183)
Midway between a portrait painter and a historian (184)
"The inconsistencies of autobiography are not neccessarily dishonest, because autobiography is not simply the life-story of a man, as biography is, but the life-story of a man as he himself sees it" (186)
Core Features
Affects / Atmosphere
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Formal Patterns
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Comparison Points
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Critical Questions
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Evidence / Passages
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Open Problems / Tensions
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