Materialitäten des Diaristischen

Author(s)

Li Gerhalter

Abstract

This article discusses the materials on which auto/biographical texts were written. Focusing on girls’ and women’s diaries of the twentie th century, the author argues for a broad understanding on which writing materials might contain diary records. An analysis of ‘schoolgirl diaries’, calendars , household books, and ‘mothers’ diaries’ shows the complex relationships between individual auto/biographical practices, which could change during the course of an author’s life, and historical styles, conventions, gift-giving cultures and socio-political interests. The paper demonstrates, among other things, that the idea of girls mainly using lockable diaries is nothing more than a cliché. Looking at different levels of diary-related materialities (writing style, paper, enclosures and cover sheets) and the places where they were kept, this paper also explores the aspects of ‘secrecy’ and ‘self-re/presentation’ in a diary context. Taking the appearances of archived records as a starting point, the perspective finally broadens to include those transformations that egodocuments undergo on their way to being researched or edited.

Organisation(s)

Department of History

Journal

L'Homme: Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft

Volume

24 Jg.

Pages

53–71

No. of pages

19

ISSN

1016-362X

Publication date

12-2013

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

601008 Science of history

Keywords

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/materialitaten-des-diaristischen(0f24032b-5be8-4d27-b091-f40cf46ae78b).html