Histories of autobiography in England often assume the genre hardly existed before 1600. But “Tudor Autobiography” investigates eleven sixteenth-century English writers who used sermons, a saint’s biography, courtly and popular verse, a traveler’s report, a history book, a husbandry book, and a supposedly fictional adventure novel to share the secrets of the heart and tell their life stories.In the past such texts have not been called autobiographies because they do not reveal much of the inwardness of their subject, a requisite of most modern autobiographies. But, according to Meredith Anne Skura, writers reveal themselves not only by what they say but by how they say it. Borrowing methods from affective linguistics, narratology, and psychoanalysis, Skura shows that a writer’s thoughts and feelings can be traced in his or her language. Rejecting the search for ‘the early modern self’ in life writing, “Tudor Autobiography” instead asks what authors said about themselves, who wrote about themselves, how, and why. The result is a fascinating glimpse into a range of lived and imagined experience that challenges assumptions about life and autobiography in the early modern period.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“In a nuanced, thoughtful manner, Skura provides new insight into a period of literature that is seldom considered by those interested in early modern autobiography. Indeed, readers may not consider some of the texts Skura singles out as “autobiography” at all (they are more often treated as “literary”), but Skura’s penetrating eye and persuasive voice cast these works in a new light. In addition, she grounds her discussion in an astonishing amount of scholarship. For these reasons, and because it is so clearly and elegantly written, this book will be invaluable to a broad audience.”– “Choice” (3/1/2009 12:00:00 AM)
“Skura aims to demonstrate not only the existence of autonomous and integral selves but their capacity, their enthusiasm even, to speak about and with themselves….What is both original and courageous about
Tudor Autobiography, though, is its insistence that not only did such a self exist, but that it was determined to announce its own existence and even debate the difficulties of making such an announcement.”–Peter Smith “Times Higher Education” (1/22/2009 12:00:00 AM)
“Skura’s engaging study should be lauded not only for illuminating a series of autobiographical acts that predate the supposed invention of modern subjectivity in late sixteenth-century England, but also for demonstrating the literary value of a group of texts more often consulted for their cultural implications than for their individual merits.”– “Studies in English Literature”
“What Skura has accomplished is significant and notable. In the process of expanding the definition of what might be considered autobiography, she has explored nine unique autobiographical selves in ways that open out their texts. . . . This book is important not only for those working in autobiography but for those interested in early modern culture generally.”–Mary Ellen Lamb “Clio”
“Skura challenges assumptions about life and autobiography in the early modern period.”– “Cahiers Elisabethains”
About the Author
Meredith Anne Skura is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English at Rice University and the author of The Literary Use of the Psychoanalytic Process and Shakespeare the Actor and the Purposes of Playing, the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.
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