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Trev Lynn Broughton takes an in-depth look at the developments within Victorian auto/biography, and asks what we can learn about the conditions and limits of male literary authority. Providing a feminist analysis of the effects of this literary production on culture, Broughton looks at the increase in professions with a vested interest in the written Life; the speeding up of the Life-and-Letters industry during this period; the institutionalization of Life-writing; and the consequent spread of a network of mainly male practitioners and commentators. This study focuses on two case studies from the period 1880-1903: the theories and achievements of Sir Leslie Stephen and the debate surrounding James Anthony Froude's account of the marriage of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle.
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MEN OF LETTERS, WRITING LIVES
In this fascinating new study Trev Broughton explores developments within Victorian auto/biography and asks what they can teach us about the conditions and limits of male literary authority. She focuses on two case studies from the period 1880–1903: • the auto/biographical theories and achievements of Sir Leslie Stephen, one of the century’s most revered exponents of the written life; and • the debate surrounding James Anthony Froude’s account of the marriage of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. The author examines the proliferation of the professions with a vested interest in the ‘written life’; the speeding-up and institutionalization of the Life-and-Letters industry; and the consequent spread of a network of mainly male practitioners and commentators. She argues that these elements all contributed to a new ‘auto/biographical’ subjectivity. Men of Letters, Writing Lives will be of great interest to students and scholars of literature, cultural history, gender, and auto/biography. Trev Broughton teaches Women’s Studies and Literature at the University of York, specialising in auto/biography. Her previous publications include Women’s Lives/Women’s Times: New Essays on Auto/ Biography (edited with Linda Anderson) (1997) and The Infernal Desires of Angela Carter (edited with Joseph Bristow) (1997).
MEN OF LETTERS, WRITING LIVES Masculinity and Literary Auto/ Biography in the Late Victorian Period
Trev Lynn Broughton
London and New York
First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1999 Trev Lynn Broughton All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Broughton, Trev Lynn, 1959– Men of Letters, Writing Lives: masculinity and literary auto/biography in the late Victorian period. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. English prose literature—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Men authors, English—19th century—Biography—History and criticism. 3. English prose literature—Men authors—History and criticism. 4. Great Britain—History—Victoria, 1837–1901—Historiography. 5. Stephen, Leslie, Sir, 1832–1904. 6. Froude, James Anthony, 1818–1894. 7. Biography as a literary form. 8. Masculinity in literature. 9. Autobiography. PR788.B56B76 1999 98–30505 820.9'492–dc21 CIP ISBN 0-203-16841-0 Master e-book ISBN