Girls’ Diaries Steps towards an Autonomous Self

• Published in: Writing Herself into Being p. 121
• Main Author: PATRICIA SMART
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: MQUP 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Anniversaries; Anthropology; Applied anthropology; Archival science; Archiving; Arts; Behavioral sciences; Birthdays; Christian philosophy; Christianity; Clergy; Communication skills; Communications; Convents; Cultural anthropology; Cultural customs; Diaries; Drums; Ecclesiology; Fathers; Human populations; Information science; Journal writing; Language skills; Library science; Literary genres; Literature; Love poetry; Mamans; Membranophones; Men; Mothers; Music; Musical instruments; Nuns; Performing arts; Personal archiving; Personal documents; Persons; Poetry; Population studies; Practical theology; Religion; Religious institutions; Religious organizations; Rites of passage; Rituals; Social sciences; Spiritual belief systems; Spiritual leaders; Theology; Women; Writing; Writing skills; Written communication; Written composition
• DOI: 10.1515/9780773552654-008

In the diaries of young girls, which became popular along with the arrival of Romanticism in Quebec in the 1860s, the individual self finds expression for the first time and diaries become truly “private.” The vogue for diary writing owed much to the 1862 publication of the diary of Eugénie Guérin, written in the 1830s by a pious young French woman. “Diaries are the latest craze and there are secrets everywhere,” notes Henriette Dessaulles in her own diary in January 1877. In some cases, diaries were the continuation of the journals girls were expected to keep for spiritual or pedagogical