The Dialogical Servant - Master-servant relations and the construction of servant identity in elite 19th and 21st century British households

Sep 2, 2026

Upload by Anda

This thesis examines the relationship between domestic servants and their employers in Britain across the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. Drawing on diverse sources, including archived servant letters and oral-history interviews with contemporary servants in elite homes, the study reevaluates servants’ lived experience and interactions. It challenges reductive views by analyzing interpersonal linguistic strategies and relational dynamics, treating master-servant relations as a site where servant identity is constructed, contested, and negotiated. Using Bakhtin’s dialogism, the work presents identity as contingent and emergent through ongoing interaction, while highlighting tensions that are both intimate and economic.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatDOCX

Pages281

Reading Time1 h 38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Acknowledgements

The Dialogical Servant: Master-servant relations and the construction of servant identity in elite 19th and 21st century British households. Sally Eales A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Arts and Humanities School of English This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/L503848/1) through the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities 29th October 2020 I, Sally Eales, confirm that the Thesis is my own work. I am aware of the University’s Guidance on the Use of Unfair Means ( HYPERLINK "http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ssid/unfair-means" www.sheffield.ac.uk/ssid/unfair-means). This work has not been previously been presented for an award at this, or any other, university. An earlier version of chapter 5 was published as Eales, S. (2019). ‘I am but a livery servant’: Examining ruptures in master-servant relationships of the nineteenth-century house. Family and Community History, 22(2), 84-100. Abstract This thesis examines the relationship between domestic servants and their employers in Britain in two separate time periods: the nineteenth and the twenty-first centuries. Based on diverse sources, including archived servant letters from the nineteenth century and oral history interviews conducted with contemporary servants working in elite homes in Britain today, I set out to reconsider traditional perspectives on servants, their lived experience and their interactions with their employers. In working with their narratives, I set out to challenge reductive understandings of servants’ roles and to reconceptualise them as multi-faceted individuals. Through an examination of servants’ interpersonal linguistic strategies and the relational aspects of their interactions, I conceptualise the master-servant relationship as a site for the construction and contestation of servant identity. In so doing, I reveal the complex tensions and ambiguities that characterise working relations between masters and servants, relations that are deeply intimate yet also indisputably economic. Building on themes of interpersonal relations, identity, representation, and agency, I chart the continuities and discontinuities that emerge in master-servant relations to produce the concept of the dialogical servant. Drawing on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, I demonstrate that servant identity is not a final and fixed subjectivity but rather is contingent, emergent and dynamically managed in interaction, and contested and reworked through an ongoing, dialogical relationship between individuals. In bringing material from two different time periods into conversation, this thesis contributes new insights to both historical and contemporary understandings of domestic service, establishing how servants author their own identities and make meaning within the specific social and cultural contexts of their everyday lives. Acknowledgements I have many people to thank for making the last four years at Sheffield so rewarding and valuable. My first and foremost thanks must go to my outstanding supervisors Professor Jane Hodson and Doctor Amber Regis whose exemplary support and guidance have made all the difference to my PhD journey. They have both been tremendously encouraging of my research, given me sustained and assiduous feedback on my work, and made supervisions productive, enjoyable and a space in which many essential matters (including the many important animals in our lives!) could be discussed with verve and wit. I am indebted to them both. I would especially like to thank Jane for helping me with the application process back in 2016 and, particularly since March 2020 when Covid19 struck, in helping me to maintain focus in these last writing stages. Jane has been a tremendous support despite the difficult circumstances under which we have all had to work. Her meticulous feedback was vital in helping me refine and revise my work and I

FAQs

What time periods does the thesis compare?

The thesis examines master-servant relationships in Britain in the nineteenth and the twenty-first centuries.

What sources does the thesis use to study domestic service?

It uses archived servant letters from the nineteenth century and oral-history interviews with contemporary servants working in elite homes.

How does the thesis conceptualize servant identity?

Servant identity is treated as contingent, emergent, and dynamically managed through an ongoing dialogical relationship, rather than as fixed subjectivity.

Sep 2, 2026

Upload by Anda