Historical Background: The 18th Century

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Historical Background: The 18th Century
Women’s autobiography, as we have seen, became much more diverse and more self-consciously artful in the eighteenth century, and in some ways more mature, than it had been in the seventeenth century. Its social base broadened considerably. Many of the elements discussed in Chapter III remain important as factors in the growth of autobiography; but as autobiography itself becomes more complex, so too do the various social and literary developments by which it is affected. To pinpoint all of them would require a book, if indeed it could be done at all. Following my practice in Chapter III, I shall attempt only to isolate some of the more striking of the factors which shaped and influenced the growth of women’s autobiography over the course of the eighteenth century.

1. The Religious Climate
Religion plays a less conspicuous part in the history of eighteenth century women’s autobiography than it does in that of the seventeenth century. Secular autobiography no longer required justification--with the result that the century saw the production of a widely varied group of works whose authors made little or no reference to their religious beliefs. In the seventeenth century, even the authors whom we have considered as primarily secular make their religious commitment clear; in the eighteenth century, many authors tell us next to nothing about their spiritual lives. We cannot infer from this omission that they were lacking in religious devotion, but we can at least conclude that they regarded it as a less memorable aspect of their lives than did their seventeenth century counterparts. Some authors, such as Elizabeth Thomas and the Countess of Strathmore, did indeed give some attention to the formation of their religious beliefs during their youth, but there is little indication of how these beliefs were manifested in their later lives. That is not to say that the tradition of religious autobiog...