The treatment of childhood in autobiographies of twentieth century American women

Abstract

In order to investigate the perspectives autobiography brings to the study of female childhood, over one hundred autobiographies written by American women in the twentieth century were surveyed, in addition to numerous works on the nature of autobiography, sex-role formation, women's history, and childhood development and history. Many autobiographies which seemed to have polemic, self-aggrandizement, or retribution as their chief reason for being were excluded as inappropriate for this study. Two or three especially interesting "quasi-autobiographies" have been included. These are based on actual happenings which are not ascribed, for fictional purposes, to the individuals actually involved.