Sites of Service

This entry investigates the presence of servants and service relations at the sites of production of women’s writing. It uses a selection of evidence in print and manuscript to ask: what can women’s writing reveal about sites of service? Conversely, how can understanding the locations of production of women’s writing as sites of service, in figurative and literal senses, help us to understand the forms, practices, and commitments of that writing? To explore these questions the entry draws on autobiographical and imaginative writing by and about servants, including generically diverse texts in which servants feature as a topic; manuscript materials that record service-related writing and reading practices; and instructional literature in print and manuscript which addresses servants and aims to equip its reader to intervene in the household. It suggests the range of ways in which service left its imprint on the production of women’s writing.