Feminism and Memoir in Baroness Emma Orczy’s Autobiography

Abstract

Baroness Orczy’s autobiography entitled Links in the Chain of Life (1947) is the author’s last, posthumously published volume. In this work, the emphasis shifts away from the political-historical context and centres on the vindication of those strategies through which Emma Orczy, a Hungarian Baroness transformed herself into a full-fledged English writer. Unlike many late-life autobiographies, this text lacks earnest confessions, focusing instead on the proud presentation of a successfully constructed career-arch. Baroness Orczy’s life and works can only be fully understood through the ambivalence of her Hungarian-English bicultural connections: the façade of the liberal Englishwoman conceals the conservativism of the Hungarian aristocrat. Baroness Orczy’s stance on the contemporary suffragette movement is equally paradoxical: on one hand, she did not display explicit support, yet she heavily relied on their advances. Through her ardent endeavours to achieve success and financial stability, she challenged the boundaries of traditional female roles. As the main pillars of Baroness Orczy’s identity are her bi-cultural belonging and the aspiration to become an established writer. In this research I aim to shed light onto those strategies along which a baroness from the Hungarian countryside reconstructed herself as a modern English authoress. Conjoining these two aspects I intend to explore the genre of the autobiography and its potential in female self-expression, and place Orczy’s memoir in the paradigm of masculine-feminine autobiographical texts.