The Conscience of the Autobiographer: Ethical and Religious Dimensions of Autobiography (Studies in Literature and Religion)

This book argues that autobiography is not simply an account of how an author's conscience operated in the past, but also a searching assessment of the writer's moral character in both the past and the present. Thus the writing of autobiography reflects and represents an act of conscience, or moral self-assessment, as a person tries to know, evaluate, and represent one's own character.
Individual chapters examine the nature of truthfulness in autobiography, the relationship between character assessment and literary characterization, conscience in the essays of Montaigne and Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin's view of the individual, Malcolm X's concern with public virtues, and Mary McCarthy's assessment of experiences of shame. Barbour explores the religious dimensions of conscience in terms of each writer's relation to Christian traditions, and in terms of each writer's moral self-criticism and self-transcendence. The Conscience of the Autobiographer demonstrates the value of ethical criticism of autobiography, integrating theories of autobiography, ethical theory, and the interpretation of particular narratives.

JOHN D. BARBOUR is Associate Professor of Religion a St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he has taught since 1982. He has published articles in The Journal of Religion, The Journal of Religious Ethics and The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and Tragedy as a Critique of Virtue: The Novel and Ethical Reflection.