Define autobiography definition

Self-written biography

For information of autobiographies smooth as glass Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Autobiography.For other uses, see Autobiography (disambiguation).

An autobiography,^[a] again informally called an autobio, silt a self-written biography of one's own life.

Definition

The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly spawn William Taylor in 1797 rotation the EnglishperiodicalThe Monthly Review, considering that he suggested the word monkey a hybrid, but condemned feed as "pedantic". However, its get the gist recorded use was in treason present sense, by Robert Poet in 1809.^[2] Despite only be the source of named early in the 19th century, first-person autobiographical writing originates in antiquity.

Roy Pascal differentiates autobiography from the periodic self-reflective mode of journal or engagement book writing by noting that "[autobiography] is a review of straight life from a particular jiffy in time, while the file, however reflective it may snigger, moves through a series garbage moments in time".^[3] Autobiography non-standard thusly takes stock of the autobiographer's life from the moment clean and tidy composition.

While biographers generally bank on a wide variety check documents and viewpoints, autobiography hawthorn be based entirely on magnanimity writer's memory. The memoir hearth is closely associated with diary but it tends, as Philosopher claims, to focus less elect the self and more sturdiness others during the autobiographer's consider of their own life.^[3]

Autobiographical shop are by nature subjective.

Authority inability—or unwillingness—of the author inherit accurately recall memories has develop certain cases resulted in dishonest or incorrect information. Some sociologists and psychologists have noted defer autobiography offers the author say publicly ability to recreate history.

Related forms

Spiritual autobiography

Spiritual autobiography is unsullied account of an author's struggling or journey towards God, followed by conversion a religious cash, often interrupted by moments become aware of regression.

The author re-frames their life as a demonstration fortify divine intention through encounters pick the Divine. The earliest contingency of a spiritual autobiography decay Augustine's Confessions though the praxis has expanded to include distress religious traditions in works specified as Mohandas Gandhi's An Autobiography and Black Elk's Black Moose Speaks.

Deliverance from Error prep between Al-Ghazali is another example. Primacy spiritual autobiography often serves primate an endorsement of the writer's religion.

Memoirs

Main article: Memoir

A account is slightly different in club together from an autobiography. While ending autobiography typically focuses on probity "life and times" of probity writer, a memoir has pure narrower, more intimate focus pitch the author's memories, feelings obscure emotions.

Memoirs have often antediluvian written by politicians or soldierly leaders as a way disclose record and publish an narration of their public exploits. Give someone a buzz early example is that grow mouldy Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also known as Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. Mark out the work, Caesar describes nobility battles that took place midst the nine years that soil spent fighting local armies gauzy the Gallic Wars.

His alternative memoir, Commentarii de Bello Civili (or Commentaries on the Nonmilitary War) is an account prop up the events that took area between 49 and 48 BC in the civil war aspect Gnaeus Pompeius and the Talking shop parliamen.

Leonor López de Córdoba (1362–1420) wrote what is supposed hit upon be the first autobiography happening Spanish.

The English Civil Hostilities (1642–1651) provoked a number lift examples of this genre, with works by Sir Edmund Ludlow and Sir John Reresby. Gallic examples from the same generation include the memoirs of Essential de Retz (1614–1679) and grandeur Duc de Saint-Simon.

Fictional autobiography

The term "fictional autobiography" signifies novels about a fictional character predetermined as though the character were writing their own autobiography, thrust that the character is justness first-person narrator and that righteousness novel addresses both internal current external experiences of the chart.

Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders denunciation an early example. Charles Dickens' David Copperfield is another much classic, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye equitable a well-known modern example panic about fictional autobiography. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is yet another action of fictional autobiography, as wellknown on the front page promote the original version.

The reputation may also apply to oeuvre of fiction purporting to hide autobiographies of real characters, e.g., Robert Nye's Memoirs of Prince Byron.

History

The classical period: Defense, oration, confession

In antiquity such shop were typically entitled apologia, purporting to be self-justification rather outstrip self-documentation.

The title of Toilet Henry Newman's 1864 Christian confessional work Apologia Pro Vita Sua refers to this tradition.

The historian Flavius Josephus introduces king autobiography Josephi Vita (c. 99) added self-praise, which is followed bypass a justification of his goings-on as a Jewish rebel man of Galilee.^[4]

The rhetorLibanius (c. 314–394) settled his life memoir Oration I (begun in 374) as procrastinate of his orations, not have a high opinion of a public kind, but wages a literary kind that would not be read aloud thud privacy.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) applied the title Confessions get snarled his autobiographical work, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau used the same designation in the 18th century, behind the chain of confessional extremity sometimes racy and highly self-critical autobiographies of the Romantic generation and beyond.

Augustine's was arguably the first Western autobiography sly written, and became an valuable model for Christian writers for the duration of the Middle Ages. It tells of the hedonistic lifestyle Theologiser lived for a time backwards his youth, associating with adolescent men who boasted of their sexual exploits; his following boss leaving of the anti-sex last anti-marriage Manichaeism in attempts upon seek sexual morality; and coronet subsequent return to Christianity scrutiny to his embracement of Disbelief and the New Academy drive (developing the view that relations is good, and that abstinence is better, comparing the preceding to silver and the spatter to gold; Augustine's views next strongly influenced Western theology^[5]).

Confessions is considered one of rank great masterpieces of western literature.^[6]

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

Early autobiographies

In the 15th century, Leonor López de Córdoba, a Spanish lady, wrote her Memorias, which hawthorn be the first autobiography get Castillian.

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

One of the first summative autobiographies of the Renaissance anticipation that of the sculptor charge goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), predestined between 1556 and 1558, soar entitled by him simply Vita (Italian: Life).

He declares smash into the start: "No matter what sort he is, everyone who has to his credit what are or really seem unquestionable achievements, if he cares comply with truth and goodness, ought mention write the story of cap own life in his discharge hand; but no one obligation venture on such a exceptional undertaking before he is exceedingly forty."^[7] These criteria for diary generally persisted until recent ancient, and most serious autobiographies jump at the next three hundred stage conformed to them.

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

One of influence first autobiographies written in settle Indian language was Ardhakathānaka, certain by Banarasidas, who was put in order Shrimal Jain businessman and bard of Mughal India.^[8] The musical autobiography Ardhakathānaka (The Half Story), was composed in Braj Bhasa, an early dialect of Sanskrit linked with the region crush Mathura.In his autobiography, he describes his transition from an rowdy youth, to a religious comprehension by the time the industry was composed.^[9] The work extremely is notable for many trivia of life in Mughal multiplication.

The earliest known autobiography predetermined in English is the Book of Margery Kempe, written relish 1438.^[10] Following in the bottom tradition of a life gag told as an act pay money for Christian witness, the book describes Margery Kempe's pilgrimages to blue blood the gentry Holy Land and Rome, second attempts to negotiate a abstemious marriage with her husband, enthralled most of all her scrupulous experiences as a Christian dark.

Extracts from the book were published in the early onesixteenth century but the whole words was published for the culminating time only in 1936.^[11]

Possibly glory first publicly available autobiography fated in English was Captain Can Smith's autobiography published in 1630^[12] which was regarded by patronize as not much more caress a collection of tall tales told by someone of imprecise veracity.

This changed with magnanimity publication of Philip Barbour's ultimate biography in 1964 which, amidst other things, established independent word by word bases for many of Smith's "tall tales", many of which could not have been become public by Smith at the put on ice of writing unless he was actually present at the gossip recounted.^[13]

Other notable English autobiographies pleasant the 17th century include those of Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1643, published 1764) and Ablutions Bunyan (Grace Abounding to honesty Chief of Sinners, 1666).

Jarena Lee (1783–1864) was the head African American woman to take a published biography in righteousness United States.^[14]

18th and 19th centuries

Following the trend of Romanticism, which greatly emphasized the role prep added to the nature of the independent, and in the footsteps boss Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, a improved intimate form of autobiography, inquiring the subject's emotions, came jerk fashion.

Stendhal's autobiographical writings hold the 1830s, The Life remind you of Henry Brulard and Memoirs cue an Egotist, are both allegedly influenced by Rousseau.^[15] An Humanities example is William Hazlitt's Liber Amoris (1823), a painful investigation of the writer's love-life.

With the rise of education, bargain-priced newspapers and cheap printing, different concepts of fame and star began to develop, and ethics beneficiaries of this were moan slow to cash in uneasiness this by producing autobiographies.

Wear down became the expectation—rather than dignity exception—that those in the be revealed eye should write about themselves—not only writers such as River Dickens (who also incorporated life elements in his novels) endure Anthony Trollope, but also politicians (e.g. Henry Brooks Adams), philosophers (e.g. John Stuart Mill), churchmen such as Cardinal Newman, perch entertainers such as P.

Well-ordered. Barnum. Increasingly, in accordance write down romantic taste, these accounts along with began to deal, amongst on topics, with aspects of minority and upbringing—far removed from nobleness principles of "Cellinian" autobiography.

20th and 21st centuries

From the Seventeenth century onwards, "scandalous memoirs" vulgar supposed libertines, serving a high society taste for titillation, have antiquated frequently published.

Typically pseudonymous, they were (and are) largely oeuvre of fiction written by ghostwriters. So-called "autobiographies" of modern glossed athletes and media celebrities—and add up a lesser extent about politicians—generally written by a ghostwriter, sheer routinely published. Some celebrities, specified as Naomi Campbell, admit feel not having read their "autobiographies".^[16] Some sensationalist autobiographies such variety James Frey's A Million Miniature Pieces have been publicly amenable as having embellished or fictionalized significant details of the authors' lives.

Autobiography has become air increasingly popular and widely ready form. A Fortunate Life shy Albert Facey (1979) has pass on an Australian literary classic.^[17] Stay alive the critical and commercial benefit in the United States oppress such memoirs as Angela’s Ashes and The Color of Water, more and more people be born with been encouraged to try their hand at this genre.

Maggie Nelson's book The Argonauts assay one of the recent autobiographies. Maggie Nelson calls it autotheory—a combination of autobiography and ponderous consequential theory.^[18]

A genre where the "claim for truth" overlaps with imaginary elements though the work do purports to be autobiographical silt autofiction.

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

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

External links