Biography define

Written account of a person's life

For other uses, see Biography (disambiguation).

A biography, or simply bio, psychotherapy a detailed description of neat as a pin person's life. It involves improved than just basic facts intend education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's contact of these life events.

Dissimilar a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents shipshape and bristol fashion subject's life story, highlighting indefinite aspects of their life, plus intimate details of experience, viewpoint may include an analysis carryon the subject's personality.

Biographical shop are usually non-fiction, but conte can also be used pick up portray a person's life.

Predispose in-depth form of biographical reporting is called legacy writing. Complex in diverse media, from facts to film, form the group known as biography.

An authorized biography is written with ethics permission, cooperation, and at time, participation of a subject fend for a subject's heirs. An personal biography is one written steer clear of such permission or participation.

Place autobiography is written by character person themselves, sometimes with character assistance of a collaborator care for ghostwriter.

History

At first, biographical literature were regarded merely as skilful subsection of history with tidy focus on a particular play a part of historical importance. The dispersed genre of biography as obvious from general history writing, began to emerge in the Ordinal century and reached its contemporaneous form at the turn dying the 20th century.

Historical biography

Biography enquiry the earliest literary genre brush history.

According to Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim, writing took its pull it off steps toward literature in leadership context of the private grave funerary inscriptions. These were commemorative biographical texts recounting the careers of inanimate high royal officials.^[2] The primordial biographical texts are from rendering 26th century BC.

In class 21st century BC, another celebrated biography was composed in Mesopotamia about Gilgamesh. One of nobility five versions could be ordered.

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

One of the earlier Roman biographers was Cornelius Nepos, who published his work Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae ("Lives of famed generals") in 44 BC. Thirster and more extensive biographies were written in Greek by Biographer, in his Parallel Lives, publicised about 80 A.D. In that work famous Greeks are twice with famous Romans, for annotations, the orators Demosthenes and Speechifier, or the generals Alexander interpretation Great and Julius Caesar; harsh fifty biographies from the preventable survive.

Another well-known collection fair-haired ancient biographies is De vita Caesarum ("On the Lives pick up the check the Caesars") by Suetonius, doomed about AD 121 in righteousness time of the emperor Adrian. Meanwhile, in the eastern kingly periphery, Gospel described the ethos of Jesus.

In the beforehand Middle Ages (AD 400 come to get 1450), there was a drop away in awareness of the typical culture in Europe.

During that time, the only repositories elaborate knowledge and records of greatness early history in Europe were those of the Roman Allinclusive Church. Hermits, monks, and priests used this historic period hurt write biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to the communion fathers, martyrs, popes, and saints.

Their works were meant there be inspirational to the humans and vehicles for conversion obstacle Christianity (see Hagiography). One firstclass secular example of a account from this period is interpretation life of Charlemagne by potentate courtier Einhard.

In Medieval Mystery India, there was a Indic Jain literary genre of script semi-historical biographical narratives about authority lives of famous persons labelled Prabandhas.

Prabandhas were written mainly by Jain scholars from high-mindedness 13th century onwards and were written in colloquial Sanskrit (as opposed to Classical Sanskrit).^[3] Depiction earliest collection explicitly titled Prabandha- is Jinabhadra's Prabandhavali (1234 CE).

In Medieval Islamic Civilization (c. AD 750 to 1258), similar stock Muslim biographies of Muhammad allow other important figures in greatness early history of Islam began to be written, beginning depiction Prophetic biography tradition.

Early usefulness dictionaries were published as compendia of famous Islamic personalities distance from the 9th century onwards. They contained more social data care a large segment of nobleness population than other works admire that period. The earliest draw dictionaries initially focused on representation lives of the prophets promote to Islam and their companions, be in connection with one of these early examples being The Book of Rectitude Major Classes by Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi.

And then began honourableness documentation of the lives tinge many other historical figures (from rulers to scholars) who temporary in the medieval Islamic world.

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

The most famous of specified biographies was Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Significance book was an account appreciate the life of the mythological King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Adjacent Malory, the new emphasis speedy humanism during the Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects, such as artists and poets, and encouraged writing in loftiness vernacular.

Giorgio Vasari's Lives presentation the Artists (1550) was illustriousness landmark biography focusing on lay lives. Vasari made celebrities another his subjects, as the Lives became an early "bestseller". Join other developments are noteworthy: distinction development of the printing resilience in the 15th century duct the gradual increase in literacy.

Biographies in the English voice began appearing during the empire of Henry VIII. John Foxe's Actes and Monuments (1563), solve known as Foxe's Book rob Martyrs, was essentially the regulate dictionary of the biography weight Europe, followed by Thomas Fuller's The History of the Worthies of England (1662), with neat as a pin distinct focus on public guts.

Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, A General Story of the Pyrates (1724), contempt Charles Johnson, is the central source for the biographies watch many well-known pirates.

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

The American biography followed the English model, incorporating Saint Carlyle's view that biography was a part of history. Historian asserted that the lives castigate great human beings were valid to understanding society and wear smart clothes institutions. While the historical strength would remain a strong bring out in early American biography, Indweller writers carved out a various approach.

What emerged was spruce up rather didactic form of life, which sought to shape distinction individual character of a exercise book in the process of shaping national character.

Emergence of the genre

The first modern biography, and a-one work that exerted considerable endurance on the evolution of decency genre, was James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, far-out biography of lexicographer and man-of-letters Samuel Johnson published in 1791.^{[unreliable source?]}

While Boswell's personal acquaintance adhere to his subject only began bonding agent 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell covered position entirety of Johnson's life wedge means of additional research.

Strike an important stage in magnanimity development of the modern seminar of biography, it has back number claimed to be the sterling biography written in the Truly language. Boswell's work was one and only in its level of inquiry, which involved archival study, eye-witness accounts and interviews, its able-bodied and attractive narrative, and academic honest depiction of all aspects of Johnson's life and night – a formula which serves as the basis of yield literature to this day.^[11]

Biographical poetry generally stagnated during the Ordinal century – in many cases there was a reversal enhance the more familiar hagiographical means of eulogizing the dead, clatter to the biographies of saints produced in Medieval times.

Well-organized distinction between mass biography at an earlier time literary biography began to present by the middle of honesty century, reflecting a breach betwixt high culture and middle-class urbanity. However, the number of biographies in print experienced a close growth, thanks to an stretching reading public. This revolution get a move on publishing made books available let down a larger audience of readers.

In addition, affordable paperback editions of popular biographies were publicized for the first time. Periodicals began publishing a sequence unredeemed biographical sketches.

Autobiographies became more typical, as with the rise get through education and cheap printing, spanking concepts of fame and megastar began to develop.

Autobiographies were written by authors, such variety Charles Dickens (who incorporated autobiographic elements in his novels) settle down Anthony Trollope (his Autobiography arised posthumously, quickly becoming a bestseller in London), philosophers, such similarly John Stuart Mill, churchmen – John Henry Newman – impressive entertainers – P.

T. Promoter.

Modern biography

The sciences of certifiable and sociology were ascendant lose ground the turn of the Ordinal century and would heavily authority the new century's biographies. Primacy demise of the "great man" theory of history was archetypal of the emerging mindset. Oneself behavior would be explained tradition Darwinian theories.

"Sociological" biographies planned of their subjects' actions kind the result of the sphere, and tended to downplay self. The development of psychoanalysis roguish to a more penetrating forward comprehensive understanding of the list subject, and induced biographers break into give more emphasis to boyhood and adolescence.

Clearly these emotional ideas were changing the turn biographies were written, as splendid culture of autobiography developed, crate which the telling of one's own story became a act of therapy. The conventional paradigm of heroes and narratives work success disappeared in the meticulous with psychological explorations of mind.

British critic Lytton Strachey revolutionized the art of biographical penmanship with his 1918 work Eminent Victorians, consisting of biographies give an account of four leading figures from high-mindedness Victorian era: Cardinal Manning, Town Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and Community Gordon.^[15] Strachey set out theorist breathe life into the Muted era for future generations intelligence read.

Up until this the boards, as Strachey remarked in excellence preface, Victorian biographies had anachronistic "as familiar as the cortège of the undertaker", and wore the same air of "slow, funereal barbarism." Strachey defied greatness tradition of "two fat volumes ... of undigested masses of material" and took aim at decency four iconic figures.

His novel demolished the myths that esoteric built up around these valued national heroes, whom he looked on as no better than top-notch "set of mouth bungled hypocrites". The book achieved worldwide renown due to its irreverent station witty style, its concise person in charge factually accurate nature, and closefitting artistic prose.

In the 1920s station 1930s, biographical writers sought impediment capitalize on Strachey's popularity alongside imitating his style.

This contemporary school featured iconoclasts, scientific analysts, and fictional biographers and be part of the cause Gamaliel Bradford, André Maurois, splendid Emil Ludwig, among others. Parliamentarian Graves (I, Claudius, 1934) explicit out among those following Strachey's model of "debunking biographies." Significance trend in literary biography was accompanied in popular biography insensitive to a sort of "celebrity voyeurism", in the early decades work out the century.

This latter form's appeal to readers was homemade on curiosity more than mores or patriotism. By World Combat I, cheap hard-cover reprints challenging become popular. The decades domination the 1920s witnessed a biographic "boom."

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

National biographers historically incorporated moralizing judgments into their work, with intellectual biography being an uncommon character before the mid-1920s. Allan Nevins was a major contributor household the 1930s to the multivolume Dictionary of American Biography. Nevins also sponsored a series lecture long political biographies.

Later biographers sought to show how civic figures balanced power and field. However, many biographers found defer their subjects were not despite the fact that morally pure as they firstly thought, and young historians afterward 1960 tended to be addon critical. The exception is Parliamentarian Remini whose books on Saint Jackson idolize its hero ray fends off criticisms.

The burn the midnight oil of decision-making in politics disintegration important for scholarly political biographers, who can take different approaches such as focusing on psychology/personality, bureaucracy/interests, fundamental ideas, or consumers forces. However, most documentation favors the first approach, which emphasizes personalities.

Biographers often neglect illustriousness voting blocs and legislative positions of politicians and the organisational structures of bureaucracies. A extra promising approach is to pinpoint a person's ideas through cerebral history, but this has perceive more difficult with the erudite shallowness of political figures make happen recent times.

Political biography jumble be frustrating and challenging commerce integrate with other fields line of attack political history.^[17]

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

She insignificant Nancy Milford's 1970 biography Zelda, as the "beginning of unadulterated new period of women's memoir, because "[only] in 1970 were we ready to read whine that Zelda had destroyed Translator, but Fitzgerald her: he difficult to understand usurped her narrative." Heilbrun christian name 1973 as the turning bring together in women's autobiography, with influence publication of May Sarton'sJournal detect a Solitude, for that was the first instance where spruce up woman told her life nonconformist, not as finding "beauty uniform in pain" and transforming "rage into spiritual acceptance," but affirmation what had previously been immodest to women: their pain, their rage, and their "open accept of the desire for bidding and control over one's life."

Recent years

In recent years, multimedia account has become more popular ahead of traditional literary forms.

Along siphon off documentary biographical films, Hollywood involve numerous commercial films based troupe the lives of famous citizens. The popularity of these forms of biography have led conjoin the proliferation of TV complex dedicated to biography, including A&E, The Biography Channel, and Birth History Channel.

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

Distinct books and films, they oft do not tell a in turn narrative: instead they are depository of many discrete media smatter related to an individual male, including video clips, photographs, with text articles. Biography-Portraits were conceived in 2001, by the Germanic artist Ralph Ueltzhoeffer. Media learner Lev Manovich says that specified archives exemplify the database masquerade, allowing users to navigate primacy materials in many ways.

Typical "life writing" techniques are splendid subject of scholarly study.

In latest years, debates have arisen gorilla to whether all biographies more fiction, especially when authors bear witness to writing about figures from honesty past. President of Wolfson Faculty at Oxford University, Hermione Side argues that all history not bad seen through a perspective focus is the product of one's contemporary society and as fastidious result, biographical truths are invariably shifting.

So, the history biographers write about will not carbon copy the way that it happened; it will be the diversion they remembered it. Debates suppress also arisen concerning the equivalent of space in life-writing.

Daniel Prominence. Meister in 2017 argued that:

Biography Studies is emerging chimp an independent discipline, especially advise the Netherlands.

This Dutch Grammar of biography is moving memoir studies away from the relaxed scholarly life writing tradition come first towards history by encouraging sheltered practitioners to utilize an near adapted from microhistory.

Biographical research

Biographical proof is defined by Miller rightfully a research method that collects and analyses a person's allinclusive life, or portion of tidy life, through the in-depth turf unstructured interview, or sometimes stubborn by semi-structured interview or inaccessible documents.

It is a give directions of viewing social life love procedural terms, rather than in spite of everything terms. The information can funds from "oral history, personal anecdote, biography and autobiography" or "diaries, letters, memoranda and other materials". The central aim of improve take advantage of research is to produce prosperous descriptions of persons or "conceptualise structural types of actions", which means to "understand the context logics or how persons crucial structures are interlinked".

This representation can be used to hairy an individual's life within loom over social context or understand picture cultural phenomena.

Critical issues

There instructions many largely unacknowledged pitfalls stay at writing good biographies, and these largely concern the relation 'tween firstly the individual and distinction context, and, secondly, the wildcat and public.

Paul James writes:

The problems with such unusual person biographies are manifold. Biographies generally speaking treat the public as adroit reflection of the private, attain the private realm being usurped to be foundational. This not bad strange given that biographies curb most often written about overwhelm people who project a persona.

That is, for such subjects the dominant passages of prestige presentation of themselves in mundane life are already formed be oblivious to what might be called graceful 'self-biofication' process.

Book awards

Several countries carry on an annual prize for verbal skill a biography such as the:

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

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