Publishing the private: Romantic productions of literary confession

Abstract

After Rousseau's famous Confessions, Britain witnessed a surge in the production of literary confession. This thesis examines five Romantic-era confessions to show how this autobiographical form was reshaped in the period, concentrating on the way in which their writers operated through engagement with editors, publishers, audiences, and print forms. It argues that Romantic confessors exploited not only the genre and its popularity but also conventions of publication to establish themselves as distinctive author-figures within Britain's increasingly competitive and commercialized print culture. Chapter One looks at the confessions of Thomas De Quincey and Charles Lamb, tracing their use of the literary magazine to develop reader-writer relationships. Chapter Two considers how William-Henry Ireland and William Hazlitt use the book format to construct their authorship, while Chapter Three turns to a fictional confession by James Hogg, whose structure mimics the process of publishing the private and raises questions about this act.