Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199270842
- eISBN:
- 9780191710292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270842.003.0021
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The closing section of the book considers the temporality of biographical writing and suggests that far from being bound exclusively to retrospect, it constantly reveals a prospective impulse. This ...
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The closing section of the book considers the temporality of biographical writing and suggests that far from being bound exclusively to retrospect, it constantly reveals a prospective impulse. This factor offers another explanation as to the performative capacity of biography to contest and transform definitions of the literary.Less
The closing section of the book considers the temporality of biographical writing and suggests that far from being bound exclusively to retrospect, it constantly reveals a prospective impulse. This factor offers another explanation as to the performative capacity of biography to contest and transform definitions of the literary.
Peter France and William St Clair (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263181
- eISBN:
- 9780191734595
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263181.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Why biography? This collection of chapters on the problems and functions of biography, and particularly the biography of writers, thinkers, and artists, investigates a subject of enduring importance ...
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Why biography? This collection of chapters on the problems and functions of biography, and particularly the biography of writers, thinkers, and artists, investigates a subject of enduring importance for those interested in culture and society. In the last century, it has been a controversial subject, as old models of biographical writing were attacked and superseded, while critics and theorists questioned the once self-evident value of the biography of writers. Yet the genre continues to attract notable authors and is unfailingly popular with readers. The present volume, while containing chapters by practising biographers, is intended primarily as a stimulus to critical thinking. It focuses on the diverse functions assumed by life-writing in different European countries at different periods, challenging both the notion of a genre with constant characteristics and aims and the view of modern biography as the happy culmination of centuries of progress.Less
Why biography? This collection of chapters on the problems and functions of biography, and particularly the biography of writers, thinkers, and artists, investigates a subject of enduring importance for those interested in culture and society. In the last century, it has been a controversial subject, as old models of biographical writing were attacked and superseded, while critics and theorists questioned the once self-evident value of the biography of writers. Yet the genre continues to attract notable authors and is unfailingly popular with readers. The present volume, while containing chapters by practising biographers, is intended primarily as a stimulus to critical thinking. It focuses on the diverse functions assumed by life-writing in different European countries at different periods, challenging both the notion of a genre with constant characteristics and aims and the view of modern biography as the happy culmination of centuries of progress.
Birgitte Possing
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781381373
- eISBN:
- 9781781384886
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381373.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
Historical biography is an important public tool in understanding how historical and public personalities have an impact. The Western market is overwhelmed by biographical writing, in entertainment, ...
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Historical biography is an important public tool in understanding how historical and public personalities have an impact. The Western market is overwhelmed by biographical writing, in entertainment, business, media, literature, and history. Thus it has become important to understand how and why historical biographies influence our understanding, not only of history but also of the present and future. Which games is the biographer playing with the protagonists, and with the audience? What is the role of archives in the making of biographies? What is the relevance of private archives to societal cultural heritage? How are biographers using archives in representing the individualities, in celebrating or devastating the reputation of the protagonist and his/her work? This paper presents the eight archetypes of the historical biography, reflecting on the relevance of private archives in business, literature, and public institutions.Less
Historical biography is an important public tool in understanding how historical and public personalities have an impact. The Western market is overwhelmed by biographical writing, in entertainment, business, media, literature, and history. Thus it has become important to understand how and why historical biographies influence our understanding, not only of history but also of the present and future. Which games is the biographer playing with the protagonists, and with the audience? What is the role of archives in the making of biographies? What is the relevance of private archives to societal cultural heritage? How are biographers using archives in representing the individualities, in celebrating or devastating the reputation of the protagonist and his/her work? This paper presents the eight archetypes of the historical biography, reflecting on the relevance of private archives in business, literature, and public institutions.
Stephen Hopkins
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846319426
- eISBN:
- 9781781381076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846319426.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter serves to introduce the purpose of the book, to examine and evaluate political memoirs written by key protagonists in the Troubles. This is a hitherto neglected dimension of the wider ...
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This chapter serves to introduce the purpose of the book, to examine and evaluate political memoirs written by key protagonists in the Troubles. This is a hitherto neglected dimension of the wider efforts to ‘deal with the past’. The chapter studies the construction and narration of exemplary lives, which can illuminate collective political identities. Issues of truth and memory in this genre of political memoir are addressed, and the fashion in which biographical writing and national or communal histories interact is the subject of interpretation. Less
This chapter serves to introduce the purpose of the book, to examine and evaluate political memoirs written by key protagonists in the Troubles. This is a hitherto neglected dimension of the wider efforts to ‘deal with the past’. The chapter studies the construction and narration of exemplary lives, which can illuminate collective political identities. Issues of truth and memory in this genre of political memoir are addressed, and the fashion in which biographical writing and national or communal histories interact is the subject of interpretation.
Neguin Yavari
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190855109
- eISBN:
- 9780190943219
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190855109.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
Is there an essentially “Islamic” tradition of biographical writing? To put this to the test, the chapter focuses on the roughly contemporaneous medieval biographies, by Einhard (d. 840) and Ibn ‘Abd ...
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Is there an essentially “Islamic” tradition of biographical writing? To put this to the test, the chapter focuses on the roughly contemporaneous medieval biographies, by Einhard (d. 840) and Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam (d. 829)—both secular firsts—of two non-contemporary rulers: Charlemagne (r. 768-814) and ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (r. 717-20). Accounting for similarities or differences in both style and content of biographical writings in different historical milieus induces a new understanding of the relationship between text and context, and offers new modes of reading. A more complex ancillary of this revision is a fresh look at exchange, transmission or crosspollination to explain instances of convergence between alien texts. The distant objective is a new model for global history that has the conceptual arsenal to explain what specific role representations play in the history of the social order.Less
Is there an essentially “Islamic” tradition of biographical writing? To put this to the test, the chapter focuses on the roughly contemporaneous medieval biographies, by Einhard (d. 840) and Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam (d. 829)—both secular firsts—of two non-contemporary rulers: Charlemagne (r. 768-814) and ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (r. 717-20). Accounting for similarities or differences in both style and content of biographical writings in different historical milieus induces a new understanding of the relationship between text and context, and offers new modes of reading. A more complex ancillary of this revision is a fresh look at exchange, transmission or crosspollination to explain instances of convergence between alien texts. The distant objective is a new model for global history that has the conceptual arsenal to explain what specific role representations play in the history of the social order.
