Biography as Autopsy in William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”
by Angela Monsam, Fordham University
Volume 21, no. 1, Fall 2008
©McMaster University, 2017. All articles published on the Eighteenth-Century Fiction website are protected by copyright held by Eighteenth-Century Fiction, a journal published by the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University.
ABSTRACT
When Mary Wollstonecraft died, shortly after giving birth to a girl named Mary, Wollstonecraft’s husband William Godwin marked her grave with a stone and planted two willows over it. In 1809, when Mary Godwin was about twelve years old, her father published An Essay on Sepulchres; or, A Proposal for Erecting Some Memorial of the Illustrious Dead in All Ages on the Spot Where Their Remains Have Been Interred. Ruth Richardson argues that “the need to commemorate—to preserve, identify, and signalize—the remains of the dead clearly held some emotional resonance for Godwin.” I am intrigued by William Godwin’s memorializing of and Mary’s pilgrimages to Wollstonecraft’s gravesite; Richardson’s argument that both father and daughter shared a “familial preoccupation” with commemorating the dead informs my reading of William Godwin’s authorial choices in Memoirs. Like most readers of Memoirs, I question what appears to be his overzealous commitment to “frankness,” and, as most critics do, I find challenging any attempt to categorize Memoirs as a genre—is it biography, autobiography, or, as Mitzi Myers argues, an “unusual hybrid” of the two? In comparing Memoirs to contemporary medical writings and dissection reports from the 1790s, I agree with Myers that this work certainly is an “unusual hybrid,” but of biography and autopsy, which I term “autopsical biography.” My argument offers an explanation for William Godwin’s biographical approach that both reconciles his authorial choices and elucidates the overwhelmingly negative response that Memoirs garnered from contemporary readers. In my exploration of Memoirs, I will examine Godwin’s authorial choices in light of contemporary fears of and fascinations with the science of autopsy and the common, late eighteenth-century practice of dissection. Memoirs was influenced by, if not modelled after, contemporary medical writings, particularly dissection reports. Specifically, Godwin’s apparently insensitive, factual detailing of Wollstonecraft’s life may have been influenced by his interest in contemporary science, including anatomy. Godwin’s intellectual milieu in the 1790s situates him as an intimate of medical men. And Political Justice, The Enquirer, and Caleb Williams, Godwin’s political and fictional writings published prior to Memoirs, evidence both his interest in and familiarity with contemporary science. DOI: 10.1353/ecf.0.0029
For other ECF articles on the topic of “Death/La Mort,” see the special issue:
Death/La Mort, ed. Peter Walmsley
For other ECF articles on the topic of William Godwin or Mary Wollstonecraft, see the following articles:
Extraordinary and Dangerous Powers: Prisons, Police, and Literature in Godwin’s Caleb Williams
by Quentin Bailey, Volume 22, Number 3, Spring 2010 pp. 525-548
Rewriting Radicalism: Wollstonecraft in Burney’s The Wanderer
by Tara Ghoshal Wallace, Volume 24, Number 3, Spring 2012 pp. 487-508
©McMaster University, 2017. This copyright covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including in electronic forms, reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, or similar. While reading for personal use is encouraged, Eighteenth-Century Fiction articles may not be reproduced, broadcast, published, or re-disseminated without the prior written permission of Eighteenth-Century Fiction at McMaster University. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material is not allowed. The copyright in this website includes without limitation the text, computer code, artwork, photographs, images, music, audio, video, and audio-visual material on this website and is owned by McMaster University. ©McMaster University 2017.
Read the entire run of ECF journal on Project MUSE.
© McMaster University, 2017. Cette déclaration des droits d’auteurs contient les droits qui sont exclusifs à la reproduction et la distribution d’un article, y compris les formats électroniques, les commandes, les traductions, les reproductions photographiques et autres. Alors que la lecture aux fins personnelles est encouragée, les articles d’Eighteenth Century Fiction ne peuvent en aucun cas être reproduits, diffuser, publier ou rediffuser sans la permission d’Eighteenth Century Fiction à l’Université McMaster. Les republications, les productions systématiques, les diffusions sous formes électroniques, sur des sites web ou autre réseaux et base de donné, ou d’autres utilisation de matérielle n’est pas autorisé. Les droits d’auteurs sur site web comprennent sans exceptions les textes, les codes informatiques, les œuvres artistiques, les photos, les images, la musique, l’audio, les vidéos, le matériel audio-visuel sur ce site appartiennent à l’Université McMaster. © McMaster University 2017.