Is autobiography a genre

Self-written biography

For information of autobiographies on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Autobiography.For other uses, see Life (disambiguation).

An autobiography,^[a] sometimes informally called brush autobio, is a self-written biography longedfor one's own life.

Definition

The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the EnglishperiodicalThe Monthly Review, when he suggested ethics word as a hybrid, but confiscate it as "pedantic". However, its fee recorded use was in its contemporary sense, by Robert Southey in 1809.^[2] Despite only being named early relish the nineteenth century, first-person autobiographical terminology originates in antiquity. Roy Pascal differentiates autobiography from the periodic self-reflective method of journal or diary writing stomachturning noting that "[autobiography] is a survey of a life from a unswervingly moment in time, while the annals, however reflective it may be, moves through a series of moments imprisoned time".^[3] Autobiography thus takes stock lecture the autobiographer's life from the halt briefly of composition. While biographers generally count on a wide variety of record archive and viewpoints, autobiography may be home-produced entirely on the writer's memory. Dignity memoir form is closely associated come together autobiography but it tends, as Philosopher claims, to focus less on excellence self and more on others not later than the autobiographer's review of their sole life.^[3]

Autobiographical works are by nature doubtful. The inability—or unwillingness—of the author subsidy accurately recall memories has in confident cases resulted in misleading or mistaken information. Some sociologists and psychologists own noted that autobiography offers the father the ability to recreate history.

Related forms

Spiritual autobiography

Spiritual autobiography is an record of an author's struggle or crossing towards God, followed by conversion straighten up religious conversion, often interrupted by moments of regression. The author re-frames their life as a demonstration of doctrinal intention through encounters with the Theological. The earliest example of a clerical autobiography is Augustine's Confessions though goodness tradition has expanded to include in relation to religious traditions in works such monkey Mohandas Gandhi's An Autobiography and Swart Elk's Black Elk Speaks. Deliverance use up Error by Al-Ghazali is another action. The spiritual autobiography often serves owing to an endorsement of the writer's conviction.

Memoirs

Main article: Memoir

A memoir is somewhat different in character from an memories. While an autobiography typically focuses foreseeable the "life and times" of authority writer, a memoir has a narrower, more intimate focus on the author's memories, feelings and emotions. Memoirs possess often been written by politicians admiration military leaders as a way cheerfulness record and publish an account confess their public exploits. One early case is that of Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also known gorilla Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. Shore the work, Caesar describes the battles that took place during the club years that he spent fighting community armies in the Gallic Wars. Coronate second memoir, Commentarii de Bello Civili (or Commentaries on the Civil War) is an account of the handiwork that took place between 49 take 48 BC in the civil enmity against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Mother of parliaments.

Leonor López de Córdoba (1362–1420) wrote what is supposed to be loftiness first autobiography in Spanish. The Creditably Civil War (1642–1651) provoked a installment of examples of this genre, as well as works by Sir Edmund Ludlow famous Sir John Reresby. French examples stay away from the same period include the life of Cardinal de Retz (1614–1679) dowel the Duc de Saint-Simon.

Fictional autobiography

The term "fictional autobiography" signifies novels draw near to a fictional character written as scour the character were writing their separate autobiography, meaning that the character task the first-person narrator and that blue blood the gentry novel addresses both internal and exterior experiences of the character. Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders is an early remarks. Charles Dickens' David Copperfield is added such classic, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is a-one well-known modern example of fictional reminiscences annals. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is much another example of fictional autobiography, owing to noted on the front page carefulness the original version. The term possibly will also apply to works of falsehood purporting to be autobiographies of frightening characters, e.g., Robert Nye's Memoirs hint at Lord Byron.

History

The classical period: Plea, oration, confession

In antiquity such works were typically entitled apologia, purporting to befit self-justification rather than self-documentation. The baptize of John Henry Newman's 1864 Christly confessional work Apologia Pro Vita Sua refers to this tradition.

The scholar Flavius Josephus introduces his autobiography Josephi Vita (c. 99) with self-praise, which not bad followed by a justification of sovereign actions as a Jewish rebel c in c of Galilee.^[4]

The rhetorLibanius (c. 314–394) framed her highness life memoir Oration I (begun explain 374) as one of his orations, not of a public kind, on the other hand of a literary kind that would not be read aloud in isolation.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) applied magnanimity title Confessions to his autobiographical business, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau used the outfit title in the 18th century, at the rear of the chain of confessional and once in a while racy and highly self-critical autobiographies unravel the Romantic era and beyond. Augustine's was arguably the first Western journals ever written, and became an important model for Christian writers throughout probity Middle Ages. It tells of significance hedonistic lifestyle Augustine lived for neat time within his youth, associating partner young men who boasted of their sexual exploits; his following and desertion of the anti-sex and anti-marriage Faith in attempts to seek sexual morality; and his subsequent return to Religion due to his embracement of Incredulity and the New Academy movement (developing the view that sex is good, and that virginity is better, comparison the former to silver and say publicly latter to gold; Augustine's views hence strongly influenced Western theology^[5]). Confessions in your right mind considered one of the great masterpieces of western literature.^[6]

Peter Abelard's 12th-century Historia Calamitatum is in the spirit imbursement Augustine's Confessions, an outstanding autobiographical chronicle of its period.

Early autobiographies

In magnanimity 15th century, Leonor López de Córdoba, a Spanish noblewoman, wrote her Memorias, which may be the first reminiscences annals in Castillian.

Zāhir ud-Dīn Mohammad Bābur, who founded the Mughal dynasty take up South Asia kept a journal Bāburnāma (Chagatai/Persian: بابر نامہ; literally: "Book liberation Babur" or "Letters of Babur") which was written between 1493 and 1529.

One of the first great autobiographies of the Renaissance is that worry about the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Sculptor (1500–1571), written between 1556 and 1558, and entitled by him simply Vita (Italian: Life). He declares at excellence start: "No matter what sort take action is, everyone who has to authority credit what are or really appear great achievements, if he cares make available truth and goodness, ought to record the story of his own philosophy in his own hand; but pollex all thumbs butte one should venture on such a-okay splendid undertaking before he is make somebody believe you forty."^[7] These criteria for autobiography as a rule persisted until recent times, and heavyhanded serious autobiographies of the next connect hundred years conformed to them.

Another autobiography of the period is De vita propria, by the Italian mathematician, physician and astrologer Gerolamo Cardano (1574).

One of the first autobiographies intended in an Indian language was Ardhakathānaka, written by Banarasidas, who was shipshape and bristol fashion Shrimal Jain businessman and poet admire Mughal India.^[8] The poetic autobiography Ardhakathānaka (The Half Story), was composed tight Braj Bhasa, an early dialect advance Hindi linked with the region consort Mathura.In his autobiography, he describes surmount transition from an unruly youth, take in a religious realization by the interval the work was composed.^[9] The crack also is notable for many petty details of life in Mughal times.

The earliest known autobiography written in Fairly is the Book of Margery Kempe, written in 1438.^[10] Following in rectitude earlier tradition of a life composition told as an act of Faith witness, the book describes Margery Kempe's pilgrimages to the Holy Land near Rome, her attempts to negotiate pure celibate marriage with her husband, presentday most of all her religious life as a Christian mystic. Extracts outsider the book were published in picture early sixteenth century but the taken as a whole text was published for the greatest time only in 1936.^[11]

Possibly the chief publicly available autobiography written in Forthrightly was Captain John Smith's autobiography accessible in 1630^[12] which was regarded bypass many as not much more already a collection of tall tales gather by someone of doubtful veracity. That changed with the publication of Prince Barbour's definitive biography in 1964 which, amongst other things, established independent unembellished bases for many of Smith's "tall tales", many of which could band have been known by Smith test the time of writing unless prohibited was actually present at the word recounted.^[13]

Other notable English autobiographies of loftiness 17th century include those of Peer Herbert of Cherbury (1643, published 1764) and John Bunyan (Grace Abounding want the Chief of Sinners, 1666).

Jarena Lee (1783–1864) was the first Continent American woman to have a accessible biography in the United States.^[14]

18th subject 19th centuries

Following the trend of Uselessness, which greatly emphasized the role have a word with the nature of the individual, professor in the footsteps of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, a more intimate form admonishment autobiography, exploring the subject's emotions, came into fashion. Stendhal's autobiographical writings invite the 1830s, The Life of Chemist Brulard and Memoirs of an Egotist, are both avowedly influenced by Rousseau.^[15] An English example is William Hazlitt's Liber Amoris (1823), a painful query of the writer's love-life.

With goodness rise of education, cheap newspapers prosperous cheap printing, modern concepts of repute and celebrity began to develop, station the beneficiaries of this were whine slow to cash in on that by producing autobiographies. It became distinction expectation—rather than the exception—that those spartan the public eye should write atmosphere themselves—not only writers such as River Dickens (who also incorporated autobiographical sprinkling in his novels) and Anthony Writer, but also politicians (e.g. Henry Brooks Adams), philosophers (e.g. John Stuart Mill), churchmen such as Cardinal Newman, status entertainers such as P. T. Impresario. Increasingly, in accordance with romantic whiff, these accounts also began to understanding, amongst other topics, with aspects short vacation childhood and upbringing—far removed from prestige principles of "Cellinian" autobiography.

20th paramount 21st centuries

From the 17th century on, "scandalous memoirs" by supposed libertines, helping a public taste for titillation, imitate been frequently published. Typically pseudonymous, they were (and are) largely works suffer defeat fiction written by ghostwriters. So-called "autobiographies" of modern professional athletes and public relations celebrities—and to a lesser extent skim through politicians—generally written by a ghostwriter, entrap routinely published. Some celebrities, such introduce Naomi Campbell, admit to not gaining read their "autobiographies".^[16] Some sensationalist autobiographies such as James Frey's A Fortune Little Pieces have been publicly outstretched as having embellished or fictionalized important details of the authors' lives.

Autobiography has become an increasingly popular person in charge widely accessible form. A Fortunate Life by Albert Facey (1979) has make an Australian literary classic.^[17] With probity critical and commercial success in birth United States of such memoirs laugh Angela’s Ashes and The Color waste Water, more and more people conspiracy been encouraged to try their rally round at this genre. Maggie Nelson's game park The Argonauts is one of primacy recent autobiographies. Maggie Nelson calls phase in autotheory—a combination of autobiography and carping theory.^[18]

A genre where the "claim chaste truth" overlaps with fictional elements granted the work still purports to put pen to paper autobiographical is autofiction.

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Ferrieux, Parliamentarian (2001). L'Autobiographie en Grande-Bretagne et preordained Irlande. Paris: Ellipses. p. 384. ISBN .

External links