A narrative of the life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke and the eighteenth century English society

This thesis seeks to display the struggles of the women of eighteenth century England to have a profession, a self and a life of their own. Charlotte Charke?s autobiography portrays these problems in ways which are on the one hand very contemporary (depicting the psychology and the socio-cultural and economic concerns of its writer), on the other very traditional and dated since it follows the eighteenth century male autobiographical writing practices, reflecting the artistic, religious, class and sexual biases of its age. Accordingly, the thesis first discusses the important aspects of autobiographical writing. It is followed by a brief panorama of the autobiographical practices from its origins till the eighteenth century. Then, it seeks to examine the ways in which the socio-cultural events of mid-eighteenth century have changed Charke?s life and contributed to her self-fashioning and the self we find in her autobiography. The changes that are mentioned and discussed are: a redefinition of the middle class and middle class consciousness, the value given to arts and letters, the decline of royal patronage, how bookseller-publishers replace the aristocracy in financing literary productions, the way women are perceived in eighteenth century English society, the split between the public and private spheres, and the rising levels of literacy and its effects on the education of women. By giving such a lengthy discussion of the eighteenth century English society, the thesis hopes to highlight the significance of Charlotte Charke?s autobiography in displaying the struggles of the women of her society to have a respectable self and a profession through which they can survive.