Accounting for the Self: Preliminary Generic-Historical Reflections on Early Modern Jewish Egodocuments

Abstract

"Accounting for the Self" is a first attempt to discuss the ways in which Jews wrote about themselves before the modern period, i.e., before the influence of Rousseau gave rise to modern autobiographical writing among Jews. What did late medieval and early modern Jews think they were doing when they wrote about themselves? What generic forms were at their disposal and how did these forms lend themselves to different sorts of self-expression? As the terms "autobiography" or even "diary" were not yet in use, by what emic terms did pre-modern Jews refer to the egodocuments that they produced? One particular form of documentation, the pinkas or ledger-book used by individuals to track their personal finances and to enter memoranda seems also to have been deployed for what might be termed "religious self-chronicling" with increasing frequency in the early modern period, indicating perhaps a new attention to the significance and disciplining of the religious life of individuals.