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Frances Burney's Methods of Narrating the Court Experience
Author(s) -
Clark Lorna J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/1754-0208.12411
Subject(s) - georgian , craft , period (music) , presentation (obstetrics) , focus (optics) , visual arts , history , psychology , sociology , art , aesthetics , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , radiology , physics , optics
Frances Burney's journals were once read as realistic representations of life in the Georgian period, based on a censored and doctored text. The current edition of Court Journals prints many passages previously unavailable, and reveals that some of the journal entries were not kept daily but written up long afterwards. This paper explores the implications of these discoveries on our understanding of the text, examining the selection of material, restriction of focus, and self‐presentation that help Burney create her effects. As she practises her craft, she lays the groundwork for her most creative period of writing, following retirement from court.