Subjectivities: a history of self-representation in Britain, 1832-1920

Abstract

The author suggests that whereas bourgeois subjectivity ordinarily resembles the central and progressively developing self of such novels as David Copperfield, working class subjectivity consists of attention to working environment and community that diminishes the concern with self. These differences account for the relative valuations placed on middle class and working class autobiographies by the literary establishment.