The Autobiographical Subject

Reviews / Votes

Acutely analyzes the construction of gendered character in canonical British autobiographical texts and provides provocative explorations outside the canon, particularly among first-person narratives by women. Diacritics [Nussbaum's] achievement... is profound. The theoretical framework is clear and consistent, the range of historical specificity broad and convincing, the analysis of specific texts sophisticated and compelling, the prose straightforward and free of obfuscating jargon. The Autobiographical Subject is rich and richly rewarding for scholars of the eighteenth century. It deserves to be read by everyone who thinks about autobiographical practice. -- Sidonie Smith a/b: Auto/Biography Studies Felicity Nussbaum considers the convergence of genre, gender, and class in an important reassessment of autobiographical writing in England from John Bunyan to Hester Thrale. The Autobiographical Subject, with its combination of provocative theory and sound scholarship, deserves a wide readership. Felicity Nussbaum's insights demand the attention of eighteenth-century scholars, feminist critics, and cultural historians, while the central questions raised by the book-how to define the 'self'? why write, why revise, and especially, why publish an autobiography?-are of interest to everyone. -- Fiona Stafford Review of English Studies An exemplary model of political criticism. Eighteenth-Century Fiction In The Autobiographical Subject Felicity Nussbaum sees autobiography as the point of convergence of a set of phenomena linking class, genre and gender in the eighteenth century; and traces the new possibilities of definition of a middle-class self, and assertion of female identity in print, within the form... The volume makes an important contribution to feminist discussion of the period. The Year's Work in English Studies In The Autobiographical Subject Felicity Nussbaum sees autobiography as the point of convergence of a set of phenomena linking class, genre and gender in the eighteenth century; and traces the new possibilities of definition of a middle-class self, and assertion of female identity in print, within the form... The volume makes an important contribution to feminist discussion of the period. The Year's Work in English Studies