The "Memo" Pages of Franklin's Autobiography: On the History of American and English Life Writing
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https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.199711298Abstract
In 1783 Abel James and Benjamin Vaughan sent each a letter to Franklin asking him to resume the writing of his life, which he had begun in 1771. In addition to providing Franklin with a legitimate occasion lo continue his truncated self-narration (he is asked to teach other Americans how to live their lives) the two letters consider life writing as a disciplinary technology and a nation-building institution. They also comment upon the competition among rival modes of self-making and self-representation taking place at the time on both sides of the Atlantic, as evinced in the writings of Edwmds, Jefferson, Fielding, and Boswell, among others.
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