When comparing Sophie Mereau’s epistolary novel Amanda und Eduard (1803) with her personal letters and diary entries, it is fascinating to see how thoroughly Mereau drew from her own life. Passages from the novel can be traced back to her own correspondence almost word for word.
In my paper, I argue that Mereau’s Amanda und Eduard can be understood as an “epistolary autobiography”, i.e. an an example for a genre that combines letter, novel, and autobiography. Epistolary autobiographies allowed women to pay tribute to their own lives at a time when the autobiography was considered an exclusively male genre. The epistolary format veiled women’s seeming violation of female role expectations, since letter-writing had been praised as an “appropriate” female pastime. Thus, epistolary autobiographies allowed women to co-exist within the private and the public.
This was of particular importance to Sophie Mereau, who, since her divorce, lived with her child and supported the two of them through her written work. In choosing this genre, Mereau was able to give a voice to her self without violating societal convictions regarding an “appropriate” female literary expression. A close reading of Amanda und Eduard as well as of Mereau’s diary entries will support my understanding of the above novel as epistolary autobiography.
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