Editing Women's Texts: Issues of Cultural Expectations in Editing and Evaluating Women's Writing.

By examining two autobiographies by Victorian women, the role of editors in the composing and publishing of autobiographical texts can be explored, and questions can be raised about the way personal writing is assigned, edited, and evaluated in classrooms today. The autobiography of Margaret Oliphant, a prolific Victorian novelist and critic, was cut, pasted, and published after Oliphant's death by her niece, Mrs. Harry Coghill. Based on Coghill's editorial procedures, it appears that the content was edited to present a public version of Margaret Oliphant which conformed more fully to the idea of a good writer, good mother, and good woman. The autobiography of Elizabeth Davis, a working-class, single woman, as edited by Jane Williams, represents what the editor thought was appropriate writing for--and an appropriate self-presentation of--a working woman. The editor's position in relation to a Victorian woman's text is rather like the teacher's position in relation to personal writing done in the classroom. To what extent do teachers' comments on students' autobiographical writing reflect unstated cultural assumptions about gender? To what extent do textbooks identify "good" autobiographical writing with the features of one gender or another? To what extent should teachers/editors attempt to be gender-neutral? (SR)