ABSTRACT

The inclusion of paratextual apparatus within a diary, alongside attention to presentation, historical contextualisation, and the employment of textual strategies makes it clear that an audience is to the fore, particularly a future or posthumous one. Connections with posterity permit the eighteenth-century female diarist to imagine a situation whereby their diary could be a document connecting them tangentially to literary and cultural authority. Analysis of the diary of Elizabeth Edgeworth (1781–1800) permits a better understanding of the relationship between diaries and posterity; the strategies for the achievement of an audience; the methods of communication with this audience; and the role of life writing in controlling and shaping a family’s narrative and legacy. The difficulties in achieving an audience for one’s works are evident throughout Elizabeth’s diary, as she attempts to negotiate her personal environs, and add to the family record of the Edgeworths of Edgeworthstown in the wake of the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland. Elizabeth’s diary functions primarily as a public document, one that tells us much about the experience of growing up within a famous family during a pivotal time, and of one family member’s attempts to communicate and preserve a particular version of this experience for posterity.

摘要

在日记中包含超文本工具，以及对呈现、历史语境化和文本策略的使用的关注，清楚地表明了读者是最重要的，尤其是未来或死后的读者。与后人的联系让这位 18 世纪的女性日记作者能够想象这样一种情况，即她们的日记可以成为将她们与文学和文化权威相联系的文件。分析 Elizabeth Edgeworth (1781-1800) 的日记可以更好地理解日记与后代之间的关系；实现受众的策略；与该受众的沟通方式；以及生活写作在控制和塑造家庭叙事和遗产方面的作用。在伊丽莎白的日记中，为自己的作品吸引观众的困难显而易见，因为她试图与她的个人环境协商，并在 1798 年爱尔兰叛乱之后增加御剑镇的御剑家族记录。伊丽莎白的日记主要用作一份公共文件，它告诉我们很多关于在关键时期在一个著名家庭中长大的经历，以及一位家庭成员试图为后代传达和保存这种经历的特定版本的经历。