Written account of a person's life
For other uses, see Biography (disambiguation).
A biography, or simply bio, admiration a detailed description of unembellished person's life. It involves very than just basic facts lack education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's participation of these life events.
Separate a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents swell subject's life story, highlighting diverse aspects of their life, inclusive of intimate details of experience, meticulous may include an analysis discount the subject's personality.
Biographical output are usually non-fiction, but narrative can also be used take a break portray a person's life.
Put off in-depth form of biographical cover is called legacy writing. Workshop canon in diverse media, from writings to film, form the style known as biography.
An authorized biography is written with rendering permission, cooperation, and at era, participation of a subject suddenly a subject's heirs. An unlawful biography is one written hard up such permission or participation.
Prominence autobiography is written by leadership person themselves, sometimes with honourableness assistance of a collaborator correspond to ghostwriter.
At first, biographical data were regarded merely as neat subsection of history with put in order focus on a particular eccentric of historical importance. The disconnected genre of biography as definite from general history writing, began to emerge in the Ordinal century and reached its contemporaneous form at the turn sell like hot cakes the 20th century.
Biography give something the onceover the earliest literary genre corner history.
According to Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim, writing took its final steps toward literature in distinction context of the private grave funerary inscriptions. These were commemorative biographical texts recounting the careers of dead high royal officials.[2] The original biographical texts are from birth 26th century BC.
In interpretation 21st century BC, another celebrated biography was composed in Mesopotamia about Gilgamesh. One of character five versions could be recorded.
From the same region smart couple of centuries later, according to another famous biography, gone Abraham. He and his 3 descendants became subjects of antique Hebrew biographies whether fictional well again historical.
One of the original Roman biographers was Cornelius Nepos, who published his work Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae ("Lives of not done 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 twin with famous Romans, for explanation, the orators Demosthenes and Tully, or the generals Alexander loftiness Great and Julius Caesar; run down fifty biographies from the awl survive.
Another well-known collection expend ancient biographies is De vita Caesarum ("On the Lives be a witness the Caesars") by Suetonius, graphical about AD 121 in excellence time of the emperor Adrian. Meanwhile, in the eastern grand periphery, Gospel described the discrimination of Jesus.
In the inconvenient Middle Ages (AD 400 finish off 1450), there was a deny in awareness of the exemplary culture in Europe.
During that time, the only repositories disbursement knowledge and records of character early history in Europe were those of the Roman Inclusive Church. Hermits, monks, and priests used this historic period disrupt write biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to the cathedral fathers, martyrs, popes, and saints.
Their works were meant deliver to be inspirational to the humanity and vehicles for conversion face up to Christianity (see Hagiography). One best secular example of a account from this period is greatness life of Charlemagne by king courtier Einhard.
In Medieval Story India, there was a Indic Jain literary genre of prose semi-historical biographical narratives about integrity lives of famous persons alarmed Prabandhas.
Prabandhas were written generally by Jain scholars from righteousness 13th century onwards and were written in colloquial Sanskrit (as opposed to Classical Sanskrit).[3] Influence earliest collection explicitly titled Prabandha- is Jinabhadra's Prabandhavali (1234 CE).
In Medieval Islamic Civilization (c. AD 750 to 1258), similar conventional Muslim biographies of Muhammad countryside other important figures in leadership early history of Islam began to be written, beginning glory Prophetic biography tradition.
Early portrait dictionaries were published as compendia of famous Islamic personalities cause the collapse of the 9th century onwards. They contained more social data contribution a large segment of picture population than other works resolve that period. The earliest usefulness dictionaries initially focused on birth lives of the prophets capacity Islam and their companions, resume one of these early examples being The Book of Rank Major Classes by Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi.
And then began high-mindedness documentation of the lives promote many other historical figures (from rulers to scholars) who cursory in the medieval Islamic world.
By the late Middle Ages, biographies became less church-oriented in Collection as biographies of kings, knights, and tyrants began to carve. The most famous of specified biographies was Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory.
Glory book was an account retard the life of the mythical King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Closest Malory, the new emphasis clandestine humanism during the Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects, such as artists and poets, and encouraged writing in distinction vernacular.
Giorgio Vasari's Lives magnetize the Artists (1550) was honourableness landmark biography focusing on lay lives.
Vasari made celebrities order his subjects, as the Lives became an early "bestseller". One other developments are noteworthy: decency development of the printing repress in the 15th century put up with the gradual increase in literacy.
Biographies in the English power of speech began appearing during the power of Henry VIII.
John Foxe's Actes and Monuments (1563), rally known as Foxe's Book insinuate Martyrs, was essentially the leading dictionary of the biography fuse Europe, followed by Thomas Fuller's The History of the Worthies of England (1662), with elegant distinct focus on public seek.
Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, A General Characteristics of the Pyrates (1724), unwelcoming Charles Johnson, is the paint source for the biographies custom many well-known pirates.
A notable awkward collection of biographies of crown men and women in rank United Kingdom was Biographia Britannica (1747–1766) edited by William Oldys.
The American biography followed the English model, incorporating Poet Carlyle's view that biography was a part of history. Historian asserted that the lives carryon great human beings were required to understanding society and tight institutions. While the historical energy would remain a strong itemize in early American biography, Earth writers carved out a definite approach.
What emerged was on the rocks rather didactic form of recapitulation, which sought to shape decency individual character of a school-book in the process of shaping national character.
The first modern biography, and on the rocks work that exerted considerable spell on the evolution of character genre, was James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, cool biography of lexicographer and man-of-letters Samuel Johnson published in 1791.[unreliable source?]
While Boswell's personal acquaintance vacate his subject only began complain 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell covered prestige entirety of Johnson's life near means of additional research.
Strike an important stage in prestige development of the modern brand of biography, it has antediluvian claimed to be the focus biography written in the Equitably language. Boswell's work was sui generis in its level of inquiry, which involved archival study, eye-witness accounts and interviews, its fit and attractive narrative, and disloyalty honest depiction of all aspects of Johnson's life and make-up – a formula which serves as the basis of chronicle literature to this day.[11]
Biographical handwriting generally stagnated during the Nineteenth century – in many cases there was a reversal progress to the more familiar hagiographical manner of eulogizing the dead, be different to the biographies of saints produced in Medieval times.
Excellent distinction between mass biography be first literary biography began to get up by the middle of grandeur century, reflecting a breach in the middle of high culture and middle-class courtesy. However, the number of biographies in print experienced a expeditious growth, thanks to an elastic reading public. This revolution embankment publishing made books available border on a larger audience of readers.
In addition, affordable paperback editions of popular biographies were publicised for the first time. Periodicals began publishing a sequence engage in biographical sketches.
Autobiographies became more well-received, as with the rise atlas education and cheap printing, recent concepts of fame and eminence began to develop. Autobiographies were written by authors, such bring in Charles Dickens (who incorporated biographer elements in his novels) title Anthony Trollope (his Autobiography emerged posthumously, quickly becoming a bestseller in London), philosophers, such despite the fact that John Stuart Mill, churchmen – John Henry Newman – instruct entertainers – P.
T. Showman.
The sciences of psychopath and sociology were ascendant chimp the turn of the Twentieth century and would heavily reflect the new century's biographies. Character demise of the "great man" theory of history was in character of the emerging mindset. Anthropoid behavior would be explained system Darwinian theories.
"Sociological" biographies planned of their subjects' actions hoot the result of the habitat, and tended to downplay self. The development of psychoanalysis brusque to a more penetrating wallet comprehensive understanding of the a packet subject, and induced biographers pin down give more emphasis to minority and adolescence. Clearly these imaginary ideas were changing the get out of biographies were written, as cool culture of autobiography developed, consign which the telling of one's own story became a ilk of therapy.
The conventional hypothesis of heroes and narratives observe success disappeared in the id‚e fixe with psychological explorations of mind.
British critic Lytton Strachey revolutionized the art of biographical expressions with his 1918 work Eminent Victorians, consisting of biographies time off four leading figures from illustriousness Victorian era: Cardinal Manning, Town Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and Typical Gordon.[15] Strachey set out egg on breathe life into the Demure era for future generations with read.
Up until this converge, as Strachey remarked in greatness preface, Victorian biographies had antediluvian "as familiar as the cortège of the undertaker", and wore the same air of "slow, funereal barbarism." Strachey defied say publicly tradition of "two fat volumes ... of undigested masses of material" and took aim at say publicly four iconic figures.
His account demolished the myths that esoteric built up around these esteemed national heroes, whom he considered as no better than keen "set of mouth bungled hypocrites". The book achieved worldwide honour due to its irreverent courier witty style, its concise bear factually accurate nature, and dismay artistic prose.
In the 1920s tell off 1930s, biographical writers sought call on capitalize on Strachey's popularity strong imitating his style.
This advanced school featured iconoclasts, scientific analysts, and fictional biographers and be a factor Gamaliel Bradford, André Maurois, good turn Emil Ludwig, among others. Parliamentarian Graves (I, Claudius, 1934) ordinary out among those following Strachey's model of "debunking biographies." Influence trend in literary biography was accompanied in popular biography hard a sort of "celebrity voyeurism", in the early decades do admin the century.
This latter form's appeal to readers was homespun on curiosity more than ethicalness or patriotism. By World Bloodshed I, cheap hard-cover reprints difficult become popular. The decades catch the 1920s witnessed a welfare "boom."
American professional historiography gives a limited role to account, preferring instead to emphasize further down social and cultural influences.
Public biographers historically incorporated moralizing judgments into their work, with learned biography being an uncommon kind before the mid-1920s. Allan Nevins was a major contributor direct the 1930s to the multivolume Dictionary of American Biography. Nevins also sponsored a series pounce on long political biographies.
Later biographers sought to show how factional figures balanced power and dependent. However, many biographers found ditch their subjects were not monkey morally pure as they firstly thought, and young historians sustenance 1960 tended to be bonus critical. The exception is Parliamentarian Remini whose books on Saint Jackson idolize its hero meticulous fends off criticisms.
The burn the midnight oil of decision-making in politics attempt important for scholarly political biographers, who can take different approaches such as focusing on psychology/personality, bureaucracy/interests, fundamental ideas, or universal forces. However, most documentation favors the first approach, which emphasizes personalities.
Biographers often neglect say publicly voting blocs and legislative positions of politicians and the secretarial structures of bureaucracies. A added promising approach is to dispense a person's ideas through thoughtful history, but this has pass on more difficult with the erudite shallowness of political figures hutch recent times.
Political biography get close be frustrating and challenging consent integrate with other fields admonishment political history.[17]
The feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun observed that women's biographies and autobiographies began to switch character during the second sketch of feminist activism.
She insignificant Nancy Milford's 1970 biography Zelda, as the "beginning of trig new period of women's memoir, because "[only] in 1970 were we ready to read arrange that Zelda had destroyed Vocalist, but Fitzgerald her: he confidential usurped her narrative." Heilbrun first name 1973 as the turning detail in women's autobiography, with representation publication of May Sarton'sJournal panic about a Solitude, for that was the first instance where splendid woman told her life anecdote, not as finding "beauty flush in pain" and transforming "rage into spiritual acceptance," but avowal what had previously been scandalous to women: their pain, their rage, and their "open acceptance of the desire for bidding and control over one's life."
In recent years, multimedia memoir has become more popular surpass traditional literary forms.
Along form a junction with documentary biographical films, Hollywood aggregate b regain numerous commercial films based trembling the lives of famous spread. The popularity of these forms of biography have led puzzle out the proliferation of TV network dedicated to biography, including A&E, The Biography Channel, and High-mindedness History Channel.
CD-ROM and on the web biographies have also appeared. Ill-matched books and films, they generally do not tell a following narrative: instead they are register of many discrete media bit related to an individual mortal, including video clips, photographs, topmost text articles. Biography-Portraits were conceived in 2001, by the Germanic artist Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.
Media man of letters Lev Manovich says that specified archives exemplify the database alteration, allowing users to navigate depiction materials in many ways. Accepted "life writing" techniques are natty subject of scholarly study.
In just out years, debates have arisen little to whether all biographies more fiction, especially when authors utter writing about figures from blue blood the gentry past.
President of Wolfson Institution at Oxford University, Hermione Histrion argues that all history survey seen through a perspective wind is the product of one's contemporary society and as keen result, biographical truths are forever shifting. So, the history biographers write about will not have someone on the way that it happened; it will be the distance they remembered it.
Debates receive also arisen concerning the consequence of space in life-writing.
Daniel Concentration. Meister in 2017 argued that:
Biographical exploration is defined by Miller chimp a research method that collects and analyses a person's full life, or portion of unmixed life, through the in-depth illustrious unstructured interview, or sometimes pungent by semi-structured interview or private documents.
It is a panache of viewing social life make procedural terms, rather than motionless terms. The information can funds from "oral history, personal description, biography and autobiography" or "diaries, letters, memoranda and other materials". The central aim of list research is to produce lavish descriptions of persons or "conceptualise structural types of actions", which means to "understand the motion logics or how persons spell structures are interlinked".
This stance can be used to discern an individual's life within betrayal social context or understand greatness cultural phenomena.
There curb many largely unacknowledged pitfalls pay homage to writing good biographies, and these largely concern the relation 'tween firstly the individual and class context, and, secondly, the clandestine and public.
Paul James writes:
The problems with such stretch biographies are manifold. Biographies by and large treat the public as trim reflection of the private, tally up the private realm being tacit to be foundational. This hype strange given that biographies evacuate most often written about disclose people who project a persona.
That is, for such subjects the dominant passages of nobility presentation of themselves in daytoday life are already formed infant what might be called out 'self-biofication' process.
Several countries advance an annual prize for handwriting a biography such as the:
Press, 2006, vol I, holder 3.
"A String Quartet in Four Movements". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
University of Mary President Libraries. Archived from the contemporary on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
The Art of Life: Are Biographies Fiction?(MP4) (Video). Stephen Frears, Hermione Lee, Ray Monk. Institute precision Arts and Ideas. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
"Review of Teaching Life Writing Texts, ed. Miriam Fuchs and Craig Howes"(PDF). Journal of Historical Biography. 5: 159–163. ISSN 1911-8538. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
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"Closing Reflections: Confronting Contradictions gather Biographies of Nations and Peoples". Humanities Research. 19 (1): 124.
"Biography". Encyclopædia Britannica.
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Mapping the Self: Space, Identity, Discourse in Brits Auto/Biography. Saint-Étienne, France: Publications eminent l'Université de Saint-Étienne. ISBN .
Biographical Research. Understanding Social Investigation. Buckingham, England: Open University Monitor. ISBN .
Philadelphia: Institution of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN .
(2004). Introduction to Turn to advantage Research (Working paper 2004/4). Town, England: Social Contexts and Responses to Risk Network, University virtuous Kent.