Autobiography in early modern England
By: Adam Smyth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780521761727
Description: "How did individuals write about their lives before a modern tradition of diaries and autobiographies was established? Adam Smyth examines the kinds of texts that sixteenth- or seventeenth-century individuals produced to register their life, in the absence of these later, dominant templates. The book explores how readers responded to, and improvised with, four forms - the almanac, the financial account, the commonplace book and the parish register - to create written records of their lives. Early modern autobiography took place across these varied forms, often through a lengthy process of transmission and revision of written documents. This book brings a dynamic, surprising culture of life-writing to light for the first time, and will be of interest to anyone studying autobiography or early modern literature"--
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Acknowledgements; Note on references; Introduction; 1. Almanacs and annotators; 2. Financial accounting; 3. Commonplace book lives: 'a very applicative story'; 4. Entries and exits: finding life in parish registers; Conclusion.