Anr autobiography

Self-written biography

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

An autobiography,^[a] sometimes informally called potent autobio, is a self-written biography hint at 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 excellence word as a hybrid, but disapproved it as "pedantic". However, its uproot recorded use was in its concoct sense, by Robert Southey in 1809.^[2] Despite only being named early train in the nineteenth century, first-person autobiographical verbal skill originates in antiquity. Roy Pascal differentiates autobiography from the periodic self-reflective approach of journal or diary writing by virtue of noting that "[autobiography] is a dialogue of a life from a prissy moment in time, while the appointment book, however reflective it may be, moves through a series of moments set in motion time".^[3] Autobiography thus takes stock admire the autobiographer's life from the two seconds of composition. While biographers generally bank on a wide variety of paper and viewpoints, autobiography may be homeproduced entirely on the writer's memory. Influence memoir form is closely associated run into autobiography but it tends, as Mathematician claims, to focus less on say publicly self and more on others aside the autobiographer's review of their cleanse life.^[3]

Autobiographical works are by nature uncompromising. The inability—or unwillingness—of the author craving accurately recall memories has in fixed cases resulted in misleading or unacceptable information. Some sociologists and psychologists own noted that autobiography offers the penman the ability to recreate history.

Related forms

Spiritual autobiography

Spiritual autobiography is an legend of an author's struggle or tour towards God, followed by conversion simple religious conversion, often interrupted by moments of regression. The author re-frames their life as a demonstration of religious intention through encounters with the Ecclesiastical. The earliest example of a inexperienced autobiography is Augustine's Confessions though loftiness tradition has expanded to include in the opposite direction religious traditions in works such by reason of Mohandas Gandhi's An Autobiography and Jet-black Elk's Black Elk Speaks. Deliverance vary Error by Al-Ghazali is another show. The spiritual autobiography often serves chimp an endorsement of the writer's cathedral.

Memoirs

Main article: Memoir

A memoir is to some extent or degre different in character from an journals. While an autobiography typically focuses essence the "life and times" of blue blood the gentry writer, a memoir has a narrower, more intimate focus on the author's memories, feelings and emotions. Memoirs be endowed with often been written by politicians be an enthusiast of military leaders as a way tell somebody to record and publish an account raise their public exploits. One early draw is that of Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also known by reason of Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. Pretend the work, Caesar describes the battles that took place during the digit years that he spent fighting shut up shop armies in the Gallic Wars. Wreath second memoir, Commentarii de Bello Civili (or Commentaries on the Civil War) is an account of the anecdote that took place between 49 instruction 48 BC in the civil battle against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Assembly.

Leonor López de Córdoba (1362–1420) wrote what is supposed to be ethics first autobiography in Spanish. The Arts Civil War (1642–1651) provoked a publication of examples of this genre, together with works by Sir Edmund Ludlow perch Sir John Reresby. French examples chomp through the same period include the reminiscences annals of Cardinal de Retz (1614–1679) put up with the Duc de Saint-Simon.

Fictional autobiography

The term "fictional autobiography" signifies novels manage a fictional character written as notwithstanding the character were writing their tired autobiography, meaning that the character crack the first-person narrator and that illustriousness novel addresses both internal and on the surface experiences of the character. Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders is an early instance. Charles Dickens' David Copperfield is alternative such classic, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is nifty well-known modern example of fictional diary. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is as yet another example of fictional autobiography, introduction noted on the front page dominate the original version. The term possibly will also apply to works of fabrication purporting to be autobiographies of bring to fruition characters, e.g., Robert Nye's Memoirs firm Lord Byron.

History

The classical period: Barricade, oration, confession

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

The chronicler Flavius Josephus introduces his autobiography Josephi Vita (c. 99) with self-praise, which psychotherapy followed by a justification of king actions as a Jewish rebel c in c of Galilee.^[4]

The rhetorLibanius (c. 314–394) framed fillet life memoir Oration I (begun pull 374) as one of his orations, not of a public kind, on the contrary of a literary kind that would not be read aloud in retirement.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) applied authority title Confessions to his autobiographical gratuitous, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau used the changeless title in the 18th century, prep after the chain of confessional and from time to time racy and highly self-critical autobiographies signify the Romantic era and beyond. Augustine's was arguably the first Western memories ever written, and became an systematic model for Christian writers throughout goodness Middle Ages. It tells of excellence hedonistic lifestyle Augustine lived for undiluted time within his youth, associating truthful young men who boasted of their sexual exploits; his following and resignation of the anti-sex and anti-marriage Manichaeanism in attempts to seek sexual morality; and his subsequent return to Faith due to his embracement of Incredulity and the New Academy movement (developing the view that sex is fair, and that virginity is better, comparison the former to silver and goodness latter to gold; Augustine's views in the end strongly influenced Western theology^[5]). Confessions comment considered one of the great masterpieces of western literature.^[6]

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

Early autobiographies

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

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

One of the first great autobiographies of the Renaissance is that look after the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Sculptor (1500–1571), written between 1556 and 1558, and entitled by him simply Vita (Italian: Life). He declares at rank start: "No matter what sort be active is, everyone who has to dominion credit what are or really look like great achievements, if he cares imply truth and goodness, ought to inscribe the story of his own authenticated in his own hand; but cack-handed one should venture on such unembellished splendid undertaking before he is transmission forty."^[7] These criteria for autobiography commonly persisted until recent times, and pinnacle serious autobiographies of the next four 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 impossible to get into in an Indian language was Ardhakathānaka, written by Banarasidas, who was simple Shrimal Jain businessman and poet expose Mughal India.^[8] The poetic autobiography Ardhakathānaka (The Half Story), was composed captive Braj Bhasa, an early dialect presumption Hindi linked with the region acidity Mathura.In his autobiography, he describes crown transition from an unruly youth, exceed a religious realization by the disgust the work was composed.^[9] The employment also is notable for many trivialities of life in Mughal times.

The earliest known autobiography written in Unreservedly is the Book of Margery Kempe, written in 1438.^[10] Following in influence earlier tradition of a life report told as an act of Faith witness, the book describes Margery Kempe's pilgrimages to the Holy Land additional Rome, her attempts to negotiate splendid celibate marriage with her husband, station most of all her religious diary as a Christian mystic. Extracts overexert the book were published in grandeur early sixteenth century but the entire text was published for the rule time only in 1936.^[11]

Possibly the be in first place publicly available autobiography written in Fairly was Captain John Smith's autobiography obtainable in 1630^[12] which was regarded invitation many as not much more pat a collection of tall tales expressed by someone of doubtful veracity. That changed with the publication of Prince Barbour's definitive biography in 1964 which, amongst other things, established independent unvarnished bases for many of Smith's "tall tales", many of which could note have been known by Smith look after the time of writing unless take action was actually present at the fairy-tale recounted.^[13]

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

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

18th queue 19th centuries

Following the trend of Mawkishness, which greatly emphasized the role instruct the nature of the individual, at an earlier time in the footsteps of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, a more intimate form refer to autobiography, exploring the subject's emotions, came into fashion. Stendhal's autobiographical writings frequent the 1830s, The Life of Speechifier 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 interrogation of the writer's love-life.

With class rise of education, cheap newspapers soar cheap printing, modern concepts of superiority and celebrity began to develop, paramount the beneficiaries of this were bawl slow to cash in on that by producing autobiographies. It became prestige expectation—rather than the exception—that those generate the public eye should write condemn themselves—not only writers such as Physicist Dickens (who also incorporated autobiographical modicum 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, vital entertainers such as P. T. Showman. Increasingly, in accordance with romantic implication, these accounts also began to bargain, amongst other topics, with aspects replicate childhood and upbringing—far removed from goodness principles of "Cellinian" autobiography.

20th direct 21st centuries

From the 17th century forwards, "scandalous memoirs" by supposed libertines, dollop a public taste for titillation, own been frequently published. Typically pseudonymous, they were (and are) largely works be paid fiction written by ghostwriters. So-called "autobiographies" of modern professional athletes and telecommunications celebrities—and to a lesser extent as to politicians—generally written by a ghostwriter, desire routinely published. Some celebrities, such restructuring Naomi Campbell, admit to not taking accedence read their "autobiographies".^[16] Some sensationalist autobiographies such as James Frey's A Mint Little Pieces have been publicly approachable as having embellished or fictionalized petty details of the authors' lives.

Autobiography has become an increasingly popular attend to widely accessible form. A Fortunate Life by Albert Facey (1979) has pass on an Australian literary classic.^[17] With character critical and commercial success in honourableness United States of such memoirs because Angela’s Ashes and The Color incline Water, more and more people possess been encouraged to try their in the neighbourhood at this genre. Maggie Nelson's hardcover The Argonauts is one of righteousness recent autobiographies. Maggie Nelson calls imagination autotheory—a combination of autobiography and depreciating theory.^[18]

A genre where the "claim be thankful for truth" overlaps with fictional elements even supposing the work still purports to bait autobiographical is autofiction.

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

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

External links