Gender, intellectual work, and success in the autobiographical accounts of Harriet Martineau

Abstract

This article examines intellectual work
from a gender perspective, based on the
perceptions present in Harriet Martineau’s
autobiographical accounts during a specific
phase of her personal and professional
trajectory. It focuses on the period of preparation
of the first writings of her “literary
enterprise” and the arrival of her success.
To this end, it relies on bibliographic and
documentary research, mapping and descriptive
analysis, portraying the image that
the author constructed of herself and her
trajectory. It concludes that Martineau’s
accounts highlight social issues that were
prominent in her studies on society, as intellectual
work and genre, while also employing
the methods of analysis by contrast
and writing by illustration developed by the
author herself to ground/structure her autobiography.