Samuel Pepys and solemn oaths

Abstract

In this article, the cultural history of time and time measuring is considered in connection with the history of European subjectivity in the early Modern period. The author analyses the famous diary of 17th-century English offcial Samuel Pepys — a work that researchers frequently regard as a prime example of new notions of time, because of both its day-to-day narrative form, and its modern subjectivity due to the privacy of the diary. This article examines the problem of individualization and privatization of time in early Modern European culture by focusing on Pepys' practices of oaths, which are depicted in the diary. The vows he took to limit his play-going and wine-drinking or to perform some duties are seen as attempts to manipulate time and to construct his own temporality to ensure his future prosperity and respectability. Our analysis considers the practices of self-discipline and the separation of the private and the public sphere that are a part of early modern subjectivity.