Ilaria Serra
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226788
- eISBN:
- 9780823235032
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226788.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The writer Giuseppe Prezzolini said that Italian immigrants left behind tears and sweat but not “words”, making their lives in America mostly in silence, their memories private and ...
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The writer Giuseppe Prezzolini said that Italian immigrants left behind tears and sweat but not “words”, making their lives in America mostly in silence, their memories private and stories untold. In this innovative portrait of the Italian–American experience, these lives are no longer hidden. The book offers the first comprehensive study of a largely ignored legacy—the autobiographies written by immigrants. It looks closely at fifty-eight representative works written during the high tide of Italian migration. Scouring archives, discovering diaries and memoirs in private houses and forgotten drawers, the book recovers the voices of the first generation—bootblacks and poets, film directors and farmers, miners, anarchists, and seamstresses—compelled to tell their stories. Mostly unpublished, often heavily accented, these tales of ordinary men and women are explored in nuanced detail, organized to reflect how they illuminate the realities of work, survival, identity, and change. Moving between history and literature, the book presents each as the imaginative record of a self in the making and the collective story of the journey to selfhood that is the heart of the immigrant experience.Less
The writer Giuseppe Prezzolini said that Italian immigrants left behind tears and sweat but not “words”, making their lives in America mostly in silence, their memories private and stories untold. In this innovative portrait of the Italian–American experience, these lives are no longer hidden. The book offers the first comprehensive study of a largely ignored legacy—the autobiographies written by immigrants. It looks closely at fifty-eight representative works written during the high tide of Italian migration. Scouring archives, discovering diaries and memoirs in private houses and forgotten drawers, the book recovers the voices of the first generation—bootblacks and poets, film directors and farmers, miners, anarchists, and seamstresses—compelled to tell their stories. Mostly unpublished, often heavily accented, these tales of ordinary men and women are explored in nuanced detail, organized to reflect how they illuminate the realities of work, survival, identity, and change. Moving between history and literature, the book presents each as the imaginative record of a self in the making and the collective story of the journey to selfhood that is the heart of the immigrant experience.
Moses N. Moore, Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195167979
- eISBN:
- 9780199784981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019516797X.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Autobiographical narratives and related materials such as journals and diaries have proved to be valuable, but often problematic, resources for the studying and teaching of African American religious ...
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Autobiographical narratives and related materials such as journals and diaries have proved to be valuable, but often problematic, resources for the studying and teaching of African American religious experiences. This chapter identifies a number of these resources and illustrates some of the historiographical and pedagogical issues related to their use. In this chapter, “testifying” alludes to the confessional tradition within the black religious experience and is used in reference to the “subjective” self-representations, interpretations, and experiences found in autobiographical narratives and related materials. “Testimony”, meanwhile, has more “factual” connotations and refers to resources and interpretations that are ostensibly more “objective” and hence subject to critical historical assessment. Both types of material are presented as valid, valuable, and complementary resources for studying the African American religious experience. This chapter also includes pedagogical reflections on varied classroom experiences that incorporate both types of resources in courses situated in two university departments of religious studies.Less
Autobiographical narratives and related materials such as journals and diaries have proved to be valuable, but often problematic, resources for the studying and teaching of African American religious experiences. This chapter identifies a number of these resources and illustrates some of the historiographical and pedagogical issues related to their use. In this chapter, “testifying” alludes to the confessional tradition within the black religious experience and is used in reference to the “subjective” self-representations, interpretations, and experiences found in autobiographical narratives and related materials. “Testimony”, meanwhile, has more “factual” connotations and refers to resources and interpretations that are ostensibly more “objective” and hence subject to critical historical assessment. Both types of material are presented as valid, valuable, and complementary resources for studying the African American religious experience. This chapter also includes pedagogical reflections on varied classroom experiences that incorporate both types of resources in courses situated in two university departments of religious studies.
James Hinton
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199574667
- eISBN:
- 9780191702167
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199574667.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This book provides a fascinating re-evaluation of the social history of the Second World War and the 20th century making of the modern self. Using the wartime diaries of nine individuals, the book ...
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This book provides a fascinating re-evaluation of the social history of the Second World War and the 20th century making of the modern self. Using the wartime diaries of nine individuals, the book illuminates the impact of war on attitudes to citizenship, the changing relationships between men and women, and the search for meaning in a wartime context of limitless violence. The diaries from which this book is derived were written by some of the unusually self-reflective and public-spirited people who agreed to write intimate journals about their daily activity for the social research organisation, Mass Observation. Each in their way is vivid, interesting and surprising. One of the nine diarists discussed is Nella Last, whose published diaries have been a source of delight and fascination for thousands of readers. A central insight underpins the book: in seeking to make the best of our own lives, each of us makes selective use of the resources of our shared culture in a unique way; in so doing, we contribute, however modestly, to molecular processes of historical change. The book resists nostalgic contrasts between the presumed dutiful citizenship of wartime Britain and contemporary anti-social individualism, pointing instead to longer-run processes of change, rooted as much in struggles for personal autonomy in the private sphere, as in the politics of active citizenship in public life.Less
This book provides a fascinating re-evaluation of the social history of the Second World War and the 20th century making of the modern self. Using the wartime diaries of nine individuals, the book illuminates the impact of war on attitudes to citizenship, the changing relationships between men and women, and the search for meaning in a wartime context of limitless violence. The diaries from which this book is derived were written by some of the unusually self-reflective and public-spirited people who agreed to write intimate journals about their daily activity for the social research organisation, Mass Observation. Each in their way is vivid, interesting and surprising. One of the nine diarists discussed is Nella Last, whose published diaries have been a source of delight and fascination for thousands of readers. A central insight underpins the book: in seeking to make the best of our own lives, each of us makes selective use of the resources of our shared culture in a unique way; in so doing, we contribute, however modestly, to molecular processes of historical change. The book resists nostalgic contrasts between the presumed dutiful citizenship of wartime Britain and contemporary anti-social individualism, pointing instead to longer-run processes of change, rooted as much in struggles for personal autonomy in the private sphere, as in the politics of active citizenship in public life.
William St Clair
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263181
- eISBN:
- 9780191734595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263181.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Numerous literary biographies of famous authors were normally shaped by the quantity and the nature of the surviving primary documentary evidences such as diaries, letters, notes of constructions, ...
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Numerous literary biographies of famous authors were normally shaped by the quantity and the nature of the surviving primary documentary evidences such as diaries, letters, notes of constructions, and descriptions of the commentaries. These sources not only shaped the nature of the biographies but also the biographical method adopted. This chapter discusses the nature of the biographical evidence. It examines how biographers who regard their work primarily as an historical investigation can deal with the hard and immovable fact that the sources on which they necessarily rely are normally likely to provide an unrepresentative record of the patterns of the lived life.Less
Numerous literary biographies of famous authors were normally shaped by the quantity and the nature of the surviving primary documentary evidences such as diaries, letters, notes of constructions, and descriptions of the commentaries. These sources not only shaped the nature of the biographies but also the biographical method adopted. This chapter discusses the nature of the biographical evidence. It examines how biographers who regard their work primarily as an historical investigation can deal with the hard and immovable fact that the sources on which they necessarily rely are normally likely to provide an unrepresentative record of the patterns of the lived life.
Max Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579761
- eISBN:
- 9780191722882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579761.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter examines the converse displacement to that considered in Chapters 3 and Chapter 4, looking instead at cases where fiction‐writers colonize the forms of life‐writing, producing a variety ...
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This chapter examines the converse displacement to that considered in Chapters 3 and Chapter 4, looking instead at cases where fiction‐writers colonize the forms of life‐writing, producing a variety of fake diaries, journals, biographies, and autobiographies. It takes a different approach to most of the other chapters, consisting of brief accounts of many works rather than sustained readings of a few. A taxonomy of modern engagements with life‐writing is proposed. The chapter moves on to discuss Galton's notion of ‘composite portraiture’ as a way of thinking about the surprisingly pervasive form of the portrait‐collection. The main examples are from Ford, Stefan Zweig, George Eliot, Hesketh Pearson, Gertrude Stein, Max Beerbohm and Arthur Symons; Isherwood and Joyce's Dubliners also figure. Where Chapters 3 and Chapter 4 focused on books with a single central subjectivity, this chapter looks at texts of multiple subjectivities. It concludes with a discussion of the argument that multiple works — an entire oeuvre — should be read as autobiography.Less
This chapter examines the converse displacement to that considered in Chapters 3 and Chapter 4, looking instead at cases where fiction‐writers colonize the forms of life‐writing, producing a variety of fake diaries, journals, biographies, and autobiographies. It takes a different approach to most of the other chapters, consisting of brief accounts of many works rather than sustained readings of a few. A taxonomy of modern engagements with life‐writing is proposed. The chapter moves on to discuss Galton's notion of ‘composite portraiture’ as a way of thinking about the surprisingly pervasive form of the portrait‐collection. The main examples are from Ford, Stefan Zweig, George Eliot, Hesketh Pearson, Gertrude Stein, Max Beerbohm and Arthur Symons; Isherwood and Joyce's Dubliners also figure. Where Chapters 3 and Chapter 4 focused on books with a single central subjectivity, this chapter looks at texts of multiple subjectivities. It concludes with a discussion of the argument that multiple works — an entire oeuvre — should be read as autobiography.
MICHAEL FREEDEN
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263938
- eISBN:
- 9780191734236
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263938.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Henry Colin Gray Matthew, historian and editor, will forever be associated with two of the most grandiose and ambitious publishing projects to be conceived and executed in the United Kingdom in the ...
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Henry Colin Gray Matthew, historian and editor, will forever be associated with two of the most grandiose and ambitious publishing projects to be conceived and executed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century: The Gladstone Diaries and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Like all previous biographers of Gladstone, Matthew addressed the Grand Old Man's mutation from Tory to enlightened Liberal. However, he did so in a wholly original manner, by uncovering the crises and agonised introspection that not only accompanied, but preceded, the many moves in that direction, as if primordial psychological forces had gripped Gladstone from which he had to seek relief in decisive political action. The triumph of the Gladstone diaries paved the way for another opportunity bathed in even more luminous national prestige. In 1992, Matthew was asked to take on a joint project of the British Academy and OUP: a complete revision of the Dictionary of National Biography (ultimately published as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). He brought not only a natural leadership but a fresh vision of the contents, scope, and contributors.Less
Henry Colin Gray Matthew, historian and editor, will forever be associated with two of the most grandiose and ambitious publishing projects to be conceived and executed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century: The Gladstone Diaries and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Like all previous biographers of Gladstone, Matthew addressed the Grand Old Man's mutation from Tory to enlightened Liberal. However, he did so in a wholly original manner, by uncovering the crises and agonised introspection that not only accompanied, but preceded, the many moves in that direction, as if primordial psychological forces had gripped Gladstone from which he had to seek relief in decisive political action. The triumph of the Gladstone diaries paved the way for another opportunity bathed in even more luminous national prestige. In 1992, Matthew was asked to take on a joint project of the British Academy and OUP: a complete revision of the Dictionary of National Biography (ultimately published as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). He brought not only a natural leadership but a fresh vision of the contents, scope, and contributors.
Paul Betts
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199208845
- eISBN:
- 9780191594755
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208845.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Social History, Economic History
This chapter sets out to revise common understandings of the infamous Ministry of State Security and its role in East German society. In particular, this chapter aims to reread the Leviathan-like ...
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This chapter sets out to revise common understandings of the infamous Ministry of State Security and its role in East German society. In particular, this chapter aims to reread the Leviathan-like Stasi as an institution embedded in socialist society, rather than hovering above it. The first part of the chapter will address the historical emergence of the Stasi's secret surveillance empire and how it affected those under scrutiny. The second part looks at the Stasi's transformation in the 1970s, as it developed new duties, strategies and networks of informants to monitor the private lives of ever-more citizens. A central theme of this chapter is how the secret police's targeting of private lives as a haven of secrecy and danger created its own limits and backlashes. In effect the Stasi's secret machinery of power both undermined and in turn inadvertently fostered a sense of privacy among GDR citizens.Less
This chapter sets out to revise common understandings of the infamous Ministry of State Security and its role in East German society. In particular, this chapter aims to reread the Leviathan-like Stasi as an institution embedded in socialist society, rather than hovering above it. The first part of the chapter will address the historical emergence of the Stasi's secret surveillance empire and how it affected those under scrutiny. The second part looks at the Stasi's transformation in the 1970s, as it developed new duties, strategies and networks of informants to monitor the private lives of ever-more citizens. A central theme of this chapter is how the secret police's targeting of private lives as a haven of secrecy and danger created its own limits and backlashes. In effect the Stasi's secret machinery of power both undermined and in turn inadvertently fostered a sense of privacy among GDR citizens.
Eamon Duffy
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264751
- eISBN:
- 9780191734229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264751.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Robert Clifford Latham never wrote a monograph of his own, and published fewer than a dozen scholarly articles. But his life-enhancing work as editor of the definitive edition of the most vivid and ...
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Robert Clifford Latham never wrote a monograph of his own, and published fewer than a dozen scholarly articles. But his life-enhancing work as editor of the definitive edition of the most vivid and revealing diary in the language will be remembered with affection and gratitude far beyond the world of learning, when the historical writings of most of his colleagues and contemporaries have been long forgotten. The six manuscript volumes of the diary of Samuel Pepys formed part of the magnificent library Pepys had bequeathed to his Alma Mater, Magdalene College Cambridge. Overlooked for more than a century, they were first published in a much abbreviated and bowdlerized form in 1825. Both the College and Bell and Sons, the publishers of the Diary, were acutely aware of the need for a new scholarly edition, but for the first half of the 20th century the project was dogged by amateurism and a marked absence of urgency on the part of those involved. Latham eventually undertook editorial oversight of the project as a whole. The success of the Pepys edition brought him many honours: the CBE in 1973, election to the British Academy in 1982, an honorary Fellowship of Magdalene in 1984, and of Royal Holloway in 1989.Less
Robert Clifford Latham never wrote a monograph of his own, and published fewer than a dozen scholarly articles. But his life-enhancing work as editor of the definitive edition of the most vivid and revealing diary in the language will be remembered with affection and gratitude far beyond the world of learning, when the historical writings of most of his colleagues and contemporaries have been long forgotten. The six manuscript volumes of the diary of Samuel Pepys formed part of the magnificent library Pepys had bequeathed to his Alma Mater, Magdalene College Cambridge. Overlooked for more than a century, they were first published in a much abbreviated and bowdlerized form in 1825. Both the College and Bell and Sons, the publishers of the Diary, were acutely aware of the need for a new scholarly edition, but for the first half of the 20th century the project was dogged by amateurism and a marked absence of urgency on the part of those involved. Latham eventually undertook editorial oversight of the project as a whole. The success of the Pepys edition brought him many honours: the CBE in 1973, election to the British Academy in 1982, an honorary Fellowship of Magdalene in 1984, and of Royal Holloway in 1989.
Karin E. Gedge
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195130201
- eISBN:
- 9780199835157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195130200.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The diaries and correspondence of two dozen northern Protestant women offer little evidence of a close bond with a pastor unless the pastoral relationship became a marital relationship. Despite ...
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The diaries and correspondence of two dozen northern Protestant women offer little evidence of a close bond with a pastor unless the pastoral relationship became a marital relationship. Despite expressions of admiration for an occasional “good sermon” or a “dear pastor,” women expressed disillusionment and disappointment when pastors failed to offer effective spiritual support from the pulpit or in person in times of need. Few reported any face-to-face religious conversations with pastors; those who did recorded responses ranging from surprise to embarrassment to frustration to outrage. Cultural constructions of gender difference imposed distance in the pastoral relationship, whether women expressed it as reverence for the minister as an “ambassador of Christ,” or inchoate resentment of masculine privileges and shortcomings, or a fear of rejection, or a troubling recognition of their own romantic desire or jealousy.Less
The diaries and correspondence of two dozen northern Protestant women offer little evidence of a close bond with a pastor unless the pastoral relationship became a marital relationship. Despite expressions of admiration for an occasional “good sermon” or a “dear pastor,” women expressed disillusionment and disappointment when pastors failed to offer effective spiritual support from the pulpit or in person in times of need. Few reported any face-to-face religious conversations with pastors; those who did recorded responses ranging from surprise to embarrassment to frustration to outrage. Cultural constructions of gender difference imposed distance in the pastoral relationship, whether women expressed it as reverence for the minister as an “ambassador of Christ,” or inchoate resentment of masculine privileges and shortcomings, or a fear of rejection, or a troubling recognition of their own romantic desire or jealousy.
Niall Bolger, Gertraud Stadler, Christine Paprocki, and Anita DeLongis
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377798
- eISBN:
- 9780199864522
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377798.003.0019
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology, Clinical Psychology
In this chapter, the authors challenge the field to overcome its focus on internal states and behavioral precursors as a substitute for behavior, and offer instead a method for studying behavior in ...
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In this chapter, the authors challenge the field to overcome its focus on internal states and behavioral precursors as a substitute for behavior, and offer instead a method for studying behavior in everyday contexts. Using marital conflict as a specific instantiation of an important social behavior, the authors describe the utility of daily diaries as a tool for the assessment of these behaviors. They argue that studying variability in behavior is as essential to understanding behavior as studying mean levels, and offer possibilities for statistical analysis of diary data that focus on such variability. The authors report a reanalysis of couples’ diary data originally published in Bolger et al. (1989) that focuses on questions of variability in marital conflict and reactions to those conflicts. The authors describe how this analysis of variability led to insight about couple conflict that was not apparent from their original analyses.Less
In this chapter, the authors challenge the field to overcome its focus on internal states and behavioral precursors as a substitute for behavior, and offer instead a method for studying behavior in everyday contexts. Using marital conflict as a specific instantiation of an important social behavior, the authors describe the utility of daily diaries as a tool for the assessment of these behaviors. They argue that studying variability in behavior is as essential to understanding behavior as studying mean levels, and offer possibilities for statistical analysis of diary data that focus on such variability. The authors report a reanalysis of couples’ diary data originally published in Bolger et al. (1989) that focuses on questions of variability in marital conflict and reactions to those conflicts. The authors describe how this analysis of variability led to insight about couple conflict that was not apparent from their original analyses.
