Margaret Oliphant's autobiography as professional artist's life

Abstract

Oliphant'sAutobiographyhas often been read as split between two traditions of life writing – a professional artist's account of her life and work and a family memoir of domestic incident and private recollection – and thus as displaying the tensions inevitable within the life of the nineteenth-century woman writer. In this article the author reconsiders theAutobiographyin literary historical terms and argues that Oliphant meant to write a literary life that resolved ideologically the tensions between motherhood and authorship. TheAutobiographytakes as its basis the Victorian domestic memoir and incorporates the professional artist's life story within it by making that story part of a family's professional achievement. Her account, intended for “my boys”, could thus be seen not just as a private or individual document but as a collaborative or communal history, one including her own literary achievement as well as her sons’ entry into the profession of letters.