The Lady Actress, Question #2

2. Why were first person narratives by female authors considered inappropriate? How did Mowatt get around this difficulty in her autobiography? What sort of successful strategies of self-creation did she employ?

Writing during the Victorian era as a female author was already a daunting task. Some women were writing during this period but relatively few compared to present day. Using a first-person narrative, a authorial voice, was considered lacking couth during this period because women were viewed as 1.) inferior to men on the socio-evolutional level, and 2.) they were viewed by men as pure, fragile, virginal creatures who were used for procreating and domesticity. In her autobiography, Mowatt even gives an apology for the "degree of egotism in the constant use of of the first person singular. Writing with an authorial voice would overthrow traditionally held norms and values of Victorian culture, where any type of change was frowned upon. However, the narrative authority and rhetorical agility in her writings allowed her to create a space within the Victorian era for herself and paved the road for future female authors.

All of the rhetorical strategies Mowatt employed within her writings such as performance and fiction presented herself, her desires and motivations in a way that "would mitigate the effects of her society's prejudices without alienating her auditors". Her narrative authority includes 1.) speaking from first-hand knowledge and personal experience, 2.) she viewed her work as the fulfillment of a responsibility to inform her readers who viewed her as a potential role model, and 3.) she had statements from men in positions of conentional respectability to corroborate her assertions made in her texts. Her greatest argument for narrative authority is stated in the last chapter of her autobiography, "My Claims to offer a Defense of the Stage". In this chapter, she argues her knowledge and experience with acting and theatre grants her the position to argue for the the value and respectability of acting and theatre. For Mowatt, acting was the "truth and an innate love and reverence for a dramatic art".

Mowatt created an authorial persona that was non-feminine and non-threatening. By doing so, she created/ allowed herself a position within the narrative cirlce by not subervting the gender and social hierarchy that characterized the Victorian era. There was also once instance in which Mowatt published under the pseuodonym of a male author. This was the most common form of publishing for women during this time and the past. Readers, typically aristocracy, religious leaders, and intellectuals (men), would be more willing to read works that were published by men versus women. Also, women of her time would write under the vision of God. That is, women authors would argue that they were simply re-writing the words of God in their works. By doing so, they hoped to legitimize their works in such a rigid, religious moment in time.