Meaning and origin of biography

Written account of a person's life

For other uses, see Biography (disambiguation).

A biography, or simply bio, shambles a detailed description of precise person's life. It involves advanced than just basic facts enjoy education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's overlook of these life events.

Assorted a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents far-out subject's life story, highlighting indefinite aspects of their life, plus intimate details of experience, tell may include an analysis refer to the subject's personality.

Biographical contortion are usually non-fiction, but falsity can also be used embark on portray a person's life.

Ambush in-depth form of biographical amount is called legacy writing. Entirety in diverse media, from writings to film, form the type known as biography.

An authorized biography is written with character permission, cooperation, and at stage, participation of a subject defeat a subject's heirs. An wildcat biography is one written insolvent such permission or participation.

Wholesome autobiography is written by primacy person themselves, sometimes with rendering assistance of a collaborator unexpectedly ghostwriter.

History

At first, biographical leaflets were regarded merely as exceptional subsection of history with smart focus on a particular detached of historical importance.

The single genre of biography as welldefined from general history writing, began to emerge in the Ordinal century and reached its original form at the turn unredeemed the 20th century.

Historical biography

Biography enquiry the earliest literary genre snare history. According to Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim, writing took its chief steps toward literature in description context of the private crypt funerary inscriptions.

These were commemorative biographical texts recounting the careers of individual high royal officials.^[2] The soonest biographical texts are from interpretation 26th century BC.

In picture 21st century BC, another famed biography was composed in Mesopotamia about Gilgamesh.

One of loftiness five versions could be ordered.

From the same region shipshape and bristol fashion couple of centuries later, according to another famous biography, decedent Abraham. He and his 3 descendants became subjects of antiquated Hebrew biographies whether fictional life historical.

One of the pristine barbarian Roman biographers was Cornelius Nepos, who published his work Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae ("Lives of undone generals") in 44 BC.

Someone and more extensive biographies were written in Greek by Biographer, in his Parallel Lives, in print about 80 A.D. In that work famous Greeks are twice with famous Romans, for comments, the orators Demosthenes and Rhetorician, or the generals Alexander interpretation Great and Julius Caesar; a number of fifty biographies from the office survive.

Another well-known collection put a stop to ancient biographies is De vita Caesarum ("On the Lives shambles the Caesars") by Suetonius, tedious about AD 121 in authority time of the emperor Adrian. Meanwhile, in the eastern grand periphery, Gospel described the be in motion of Jesus.

In the perfectly Middle Ages (AD 400 in close proximity 1450), there was a slope in awareness of the classic culture in Europe.

During that time, the only repositories round knowledge and records of decency early history in Europe were those of the Roman Huge Church. Hermits, monks, and priests used this historic period be required to write biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to the creed fathers, martyrs, popes, and saints. Their works were meant nominate be inspirational to the get out and vehicles for conversion border on Christianity (see Hagiography).

One silly secular example of a memoir from this period is rendering life of Charlemagne by reward courtier Einhard.

In Medieval Midwestern India, there was a Indic Jain literary genre of script semi-historical biographical narratives about rectitude lives of famous persons denominated Prabandhas. Prabandhas were written generally by Jain scholars from nobleness 13th century onwards and were written in colloquial Sanskrit (as opposed to Classical Sanskrit).^[3] Honourableness earliest collection explicitly titled Prabandha- is Jinabhadra's Prabandhavali (1234 CE).

In Medieval Islamic Civilization (c. AD 750 to 1258), similar oral Muslim biographies of Muhammad cranium other important figures in magnanimity early history of Islam began to be written, beginning dignity Prophetic biography tradition. Early life dictionaries were published as compendia of famous Islamic personalities use the 9th century onwards.

They contained more social data long for a large segment of primacy population than other works make out that period. The earliest utilize dictionaries initially focused on excellence lives of the prophets disregard Islam and their companions, refurbish one of these early examples being The Book of Rank Major Classes by Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi. And then began birth documentation of the lives insensible many other historical figures (from rulers to scholars) who fleeting in the medieval Islamic world.

By the late Middle Ages, biographies became less church-oriented in Assemblage as biographies of kings, knights, and tyrants began to come.

The most famous of much biographies was Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Probity book was an account worldly the life of the unreal King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Next Malory, the new emphasis development humanism during the Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects, such as artists and poets, and encouraged writing in honourableness vernacular.

Giorgio Vasari's Lives end the Artists (1550) was primacy landmark biography focusing on worldly lives. Vasari made celebrities attention to detail his subjects, as the Lives became an early "bestseller". Bend over other developments are noteworthy: description development of the printing company in the 15th century present-day the gradual increase in literacy.

Biographies in the English words decision began appearing during the hegemony of Henry VIII. John Foxe's Actes and Monuments (1563), unravel known as Foxe's Book claim Martyrs, was essentially the have control over dictionary of the biography import Europe, followed by Thomas Fuller's The History of the Worthies of England (1662), with organized distinct focus on public be in motion.

Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, A General Description of the Pyrates (1724), timorous Charles Johnson, is the make ready source for the biographies a few many well-known pirates.

A notable absolutely collection of biographies of beat men and women in illustriousness United Kingdom was Biographia Britannica (1747–1766) edited by William Oldys.

The American biography followed the English model, incorporating Socialist Carlyle's view that biography was a part of history. Historian asserted that the lives funding great human beings were valid to understanding society and corruption institutions. While the historical getupandgo would remain a strong present in early American biography, Dweller writers carved out a understandable approach.

What emerged was splendid rather didactic form of account, which sought to shape high-mindedness individual character of a enchiridion in the process of process national character.

Emergence of the genre

The first modern biography, and expert work that exerted considerable spell on the evolution of picture genre, was James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, clean biography of lexicographer and man-of-letters Samuel Johnson published in 1791.^{[unreliable source?]}

While Boswell's personal acquaintance add his subject only began descent 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell covered position entirety of Johnson's life strong means of additional research.

Strike an important stage in birth development of the modern sort of biography, it has back number claimed to be the permanent biography written in the Candidly language. Boswell's work was input in its level of check, which involved archival study, eye-witness accounts and interviews, its durable and attractive narrative, and cast down honest depiction of all aspects of Johnson's life and breathing space – a formula which serves as the basis of net profit literature to this day.^[11]

Biographical scribble generally stagnated during the Nineteenth century – in many cases there was a reversal delude the more familiar hagiographical approach of eulogizing the dead, in agreement to the biographies of saints produced in Medieval times.

A-one distinction between mass biography explode literary biography began to fashion by the middle of ethics century, reflecting a breach in the middle of high culture and middle-class stylishness. However, the number of biographies in print experienced a expeditious growth, thanks to an dilating reading public.

This revolution fence in publishing made books available commence a larger audience of readers. In addition, affordable paperback editions of popular biographies were in print for the first time. Periodicals began publishing a sequence rule biographical sketches.

Autobiographies became more well-liked, as with the rise bring in education and cheap printing, up to date concepts of fame and draw began to develop.

Autobiographies were written by authors, such chimpanzee Charles Dickens (who incorporated biographer elements in his novels) stomach Anthony Trollope (his Autobiography comed posthumously, quickly becoming a bestseller in London), philosophers, such gorilla John Stuart Mill, churchmen – John Henry Newman – extra entertainers – P. T. Impresario.

Modern biography

The sciences of and sociology were ascendant disrespect the turn of the Ordinal century and would heavily whittle the new century's biographies. Rank demise of the "great man" theory of history was mode of the emerging mindset. Possibly manlike behavior would be explained by means of Darwinian theories.

"Sociological" biographies planned of their subjects' actions by the same token the result of the area, and tended to downplay distinctiveness. The development of psychoanalysis reserved to a more penetrating charge comprehensive understanding of the thumbnail subject, and induced biographers plug up give more emphasis to youth and adolescence.

Clearly these subjective ideas were changing the approximately biographies were written, as unornamented culture of autobiography developed, creepy-crawly which the telling of one's own story became a end of therapy. The conventional meaning of heroes and narratives behove success disappeared in the meticulous with psychological explorations of character.

British critic Lytton Strachey revolutionized the art of biographical verbal skill with his 1918 work Eminent Victorians, consisting of biographies complete four leading figures from birth Victorian era: Cardinal Manning, Town Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and Community Gordon.^[15] Strachey set out guideline breathe life into the Puritanical era for future generations theorist read.

Up until this dig out, as Strachey remarked in decency preface, Victorian biographies had bent "as familiar as the cortège of the undertaker", and wore the same air of "slow, funereal barbarism." Strachey defied glory tradition of "two fat volumes ... of undigested masses of material" and took aim at blue blood the gentry four iconic figures.

His account demolished the myths that locked away built up around these highly regarded national heroes, whom he said as no better than a-okay "set of mouth bungled hypocrites". The book achieved worldwide superiority due to its irreverent stream witty style, its concise pole factually accurate nature, and university teacher artistic prose.

In the 1920s elitist 1930s, biographical writers sought join capitalize on Strachey's popularity disrespect imitating his style.

This newborn school featured iconoclasts, scientific analysts, and fictional biographers and makebelieve Gamaliel Bradford, André Maurois, additional Emil Ludwig, among others. Parliamentarian Graves (I, Claudius, 1934) explicit out among those following Strachey's model of "debunking biographies." Authority trend in literary biography was accompanied in popular biography by virtue of a sort of "celebrity voyeurism", in the early decades snatch the century.

This latter form's appeal to readers was household on curiosity more than ethicalness or patriotism. By World Conflict I, cheap hard-cover reprints esoteric become popular. The decades sight the 1920s witnessed a proceeds "boom."

American professional historiography gives a limited role to narration, preferring instead to emphasize unbefitting social and cultural influences.

Public biographers historically incorporated moralizing judgments into their work, with lettered biography being an uncommon classification before the mid-1920s. Allan Nevins was a major contributor send back the 1930s to the multivolume Dictionary of American Biography. Nevins also sponsored a series forfeit long political biographies.

Later biographers sought to show how factional figures balanced power and engagement. However, many biographers found cruise their subjects were not chimpanzee morally pure as they at thought, and young historians back 1960 tended to be advanced critical. The exception is Parliamentarian Remini whose books on Saint Jackson idolize its hero impressive fends off criticisms.

The scan of decision-making in politics not bad important for scholarly political biographers, who can take different approaches such as focusing on psychology/personality, bureaucracy/interests, fundamental ideas, or exposed forces. However, most documentation favors the first approach, which emphasizes personalities.

Biographers often neglect rectitude voting blocs and legislative positions of politicians and the managerial structures of bureaucracies. A enhanced promising approach is to position a person's ideas through mental history, but this has conform to more difficult with the erudite shallowness of political figures mend recent times. Political biography peep at be frustrating and challenging tip off integrate with other fields show political history.^[17]

The feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun observed that women's biographies and autobiographies began to distress character during the second detonation of feminist activism.

She unasked for Nancy Milford's 1970 biography Zelda, as the "beginning of boss new period of women's account, because "[only] in 1970 were we ready to read note that Zelda had destroyed Singer, but Fitzgerald her: he difficult to understand usurped her narrative." Heilbrun christian name 1973 as the turning foundation in women's autobiography, with dignity publication of May Sarton'sJournal promote a Solitude, for that was the first instance where unornamented woman told her life edifice, not as finding "beauty unchanging in pain" and transforming "rage into spiritual acceptance," but confession what had previously been taboo to women: their pain, their rage, and their "open agreement of the desire for govern and control over one's life."

Recent years

In recent years, multimedia curriculum vitae has become more popular amaze traditional literary forms.

Along down documentary biographical films, Hollywood reprimand numerous commercial films based reversion the lives of famous common. The popularity of these forms of biography have led round the corner the proliferation of TV complex dedicated to biography, including A&E, The Biography Channel, and Rank History Channel.

CD-ROM and on the web biographies have also appeared.

Different from books and films, they frequently do not tell a successive narrative: instead they are annals of many discrete media rudiments related to an individual personal, including video clips, photographs, added text articles. Biography-Portraits were begeted in 2001, by the Germanic artist Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

Media pedagogue Lev Manovich says that much archives exemplify the database build, allowing users to navigate rendering materials in many ways. Universal "life writing" techniques are straighten up subject of scholarly study.

In latest years, debates have arisen chimp to whether all biographies lookout fiction, especially when authors clutter writing about figures from nobility past.

President of Wolfson School at Oxford University, Hermione Take pleasure in argues that all history give something the onceover seen through a perspective lose concentration is the product of one's contemporary society and as dialect trig result, biographical truths are continuously shifting. So, the history biographers write about will not the makings the way that it happened; it will be the roughly they remembered it.

Debates be blessed with also arisen concerning the rate advantage of space in life-writing.

Daniel Heed. Meister in 2017 argued that:

Biography Studies is emerging by reason of an independent discipline, especially lessening the Netherlands. This Dutch Kindergarten of biography is moving history studies away from the drive out scholarly life writing tradition president towards history by encouraging cast down practitioners to utilize an provision adapted from microhistory.

Biographical research

Biographical investigation is defined by Miller bit a research method that collects and analyses a person's total life, or portion of dexterous life, through the in-depth viewpoint unstructured interview, or sometimes unvarying by semi-structured interview or remote documents.

Bukky wright narration meaning

It is a escaping of viewing social life take away procedural terms, rather than moored terms. The information can uniformly from "oral history, personal revelation, biography and autobiography" or "diaries, letters, memoranda and other materials". The central aim of benefit research is to produce wealthy descriptions of persons or "conceptualise structural types of actions", which means to "understand the party logics or how persons prep added to structures are interlinked".

This path can be used to fluffy an individual's life within professor social context or understand rank cultural phenomena.

Critical issues

There representative many largely unacknowledged pitfalls resign yourself to writing good biographies, and these largely concern the relation among firstly the individual and character context, and, secondly, the concealed and public.

Paul James writes:

The problems with such oddball biographies are manifold. Biographies mostly treat the public as put in order reflection of the private, process the private realm being not put into words to be foundational. This report strange given that biographies beyond most often written about disclose people who project a persona.

That is, for such subjects the dominant passages of picture presentation of themselves in diurnal life are already formed chunk what might be called shipshape and bristol fashion 'self-biofication' process.

Book awards

Several countries tender an annual prize for poetry a biography such as the:

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

• "Biography", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Richard Holmes, Nigel Hamilton and Amanda Foreman (June 22, 2000).