Fictional Selves: Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography is about fictionality and the role that processes of fiction play in our experiences of personal subjectivity. I argue that the particular and historically situated form of the Victorian fictional autobiography helps us to perceive the more widespread importance of fiction to our understanding of identity as both a creative and a social process. In my work, a fictional autobiography is the autobiography of an explicitly fictional character. David Copperfield and Bleak House by Dickens and Jane Eyre and Villette by C. Bronte are openly imaginative works, but they are told through the thematic and formal conventions of the nascent genre of autobiography. I propose that the dual presence of conventions of reference and conventions of fiction encourages a doubled reading stance with respect to the text that allows the sympathetic reader to recognize the fictionality of her own practices of identity formation by seeing them played out in the narrative of an openly fictional character with whom she emotionally identifies. By thus redefining the nature of human identity, the fictional autobiography implicitly engages, and asks us to reconsider, Victorian preoccupations with human potential, especially through the paradigmatic figures of the author and the domestic woman.
","abstract_html":"<p>Fictional Selves: Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography is about fictionality and the role that processes of fiction play in our experiences of personal subjectivity. I argue that the particular and historically situated form of the Victorian fictional autobiography helps us to perceive the more widespread importance of fiction to our understanding of identity as both a creative and a social process. In my work, a fictional autobiography is the autobiography of an explicitly fictional character. <em>David Copperfield</em> and <em>Bleak House</em> by Dickens and <em>Jane Eyre</em> and <em>Villette</em> by C. Bronte are openly imaginative works, but they are told through the thematic and formal conventions of the nascent genre of autobiography. I propose that the dual presence of conventions of reference and conventions of fiction encourages a doubled reading stance with respect to the text that allows the sympathetic reader to recognize the fictionality of her own practices of identity formation by seeing them played out in the narrative of an openly fictional character with whom she emotionally identifies. By thus redefining the nature of human identity, the fictional autobiography implicitly engages, and asks us to reconsider, Victorian preoccupations with human potential, especially through the paradigmatic figures of the author and the domestic woman.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Pennington, Heidi L."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"English and Comparative Literature","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Miriam L Bailin"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-04-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2013-04-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:55Z","subjects":["Bronte","Dickens","Domesticity","Fiction","Self","Subjectivity","English Language and Literature"],"languages":["English (en)"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7G15XZJ"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7G15XZJ","href":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7G15XZJ","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1089","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Miriam L Bailin"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Pennington, Heidi L."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2113-04-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English and Comparative Literature"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Bronte","Dickens","Domesticity","Fiction","Self","Subjectivity","English Language and Literature"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English (en)"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1089"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7G15XZJ"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Fictional Selves: Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography is about fictionality and the role that processes of fiction play in our experiences of personal subjectivity. I argue that the particular and historically situated form of the Victorian fictional autobiography helps us to perceive the more widespread importance of fiction to our understanding of identity as both a creative and a social process. In my work, a fictional autobiography is the autobiography of an explicitly fictional character. David Copperfield and Bleak House by Dickens and Jane Eyre and Villette by C. Bronte are openly imaginative works, but they are told through the thematic and formal conventions of the nascent genre of autobiography. I propose that the dual presence of conventions of reference and conventions of fiction encourages a doubled reading stance with respect to the text that allows the sympathetic reader to recognize the fictionality of her own practices of identity formation by seeing them played out in the narrative of an openly fictional character with whom she emotionally identifies. By thus redefining the nature of human identity, the fictional autobiography implicitly engages, and asks us to reconsider, Victorian preoccupations with human potential, especially through the paradigmatic figures of the author and the domestic woman.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Fictional Selves: Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Miriam L Bailin"],"dc:creator":["Pennington, Heidi L."],"dc:date.available":["2113-04-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Fictional Selves: Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography is about fictionality and the role that processes of fiction play in our experiences of personal subjectivity. I argue that the particular and historically situated form of the Victorian fictional autobiography helps us to perceive the more widespread importance of fiction to our understanding of identity as both a creative and a social process. In my work, a fictional autobiography is the autobiography of an explicitly fictional character. David Copperfield and Bleak House by Dickens and Jane Eyre and Villette by C. Bronte are openly imaginative works, but they are told through the thematic and formal conventions of the nascent genre of autobiography. I propose that the dual presence of conventions of reference and conventions of fiction encourages a doubled reading stance with respect to the text that allows the sympathetic reader to recognize the fictionality of her own practices of identity formation by seeing them played out in the narrative of an openly fictional character with whom she emotionally identifies. By thus redefining the nature of human identity, the fictional autobiography implicitly engages, and asks us to reconsider, Victorian preoccupations with human potential, especially through the paradigmatic figures of the author and the domestic woman.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1089"],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7G15XZJ"],"dc:language":["English (en)"],"dc:subject":["Bronte","Dickens","Domesticity","Fiction","Self","Subjectivity","English Language and Literature"],"dc:title":["Fictional Selves: Creating Identity in the Victorian Fictional Autobiography"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English and Comparative Literature"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:55Z"}