Origins of the individualist self: autobiography and self-identity in England, 1591-1791

Prologue: Advertisements for Myself

pt. I. The First English Individualist. 1. Narrative Subjects: Individualism, Autobiography, Authority. 2. A Novel Self-Identity: The Performance of Individual Authority in James Lackington's Memoirs

pt. II. Early Ancestors: The Sacred. 3. Christian "Experience"; or, The Discourse of Life and Death. 4. Writing on the Heart: Preserving Experience in First-Person Discourse. 5. A Press of Witnesses: The Impact of Print

pt. III. Immediate Precursors: The Profane. 6. True Confessions: John Dunton and the Subject of Repentance. 7. The Trump of Fame: Self-Identified Heroes and Heroines

Epilogue: "The Author ... Our Hero."