Time Management and Autonomous Subjectivity: Catherine Talbot, Politeness, and Self-Discipline as a Practice of Freedom

• Main Author: Soile Ylivuori
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Firenze University Press 2017-03-01
• Series: Journal of Early Modern Studies
• Online Access: https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-jems/article/view/7079

The article investigates the moralist author and bluestocking Catherine Talbot’s (1721-1770) system of time management and self-discipline through her manuscript journals. Her writings paint a picture of a woman who, by monitoring her daily activities by the minute, aimed at making the most of her time in a very concrete way. More specifically, Talbot’s time management was an integral part of her regime of self-imposed discipline, aimed at moral and polite self-improvement and rational selfhood. Moreover, the article argues that Talbot’s quest for self-control can be seen as an attempt to formulate autonomous subjectivity within the framework of the culture of politeness and to gain pleasure through working on the self. Self-discipline could also be a means of acquiring freedom from normative gender roles in an environment where discipline was seen as a masculine prerogative.