biography

Literature

2022

We explain what a biography is, its types, history, characteristics and various examples. Also, how to write a biography.

Biographies fulfill both a historical, educational and reflective function.

What is a biography?

A biography is the narration from the history of life of a person, which does this literary genre very popular in the publishing market of the whole world. This story is usually told by a third person, an expert or scholar of the life of the biographer, or even by the latter (that is, an autobiography).

Biographies are literary texts essays and memorials, which are classified within non-fiction genres. On the one hand, it has historical importance, in the sense that the successes, failures and singularities of someone's life count. character relevant historical.

On the other hand, they also fulfill an educational and reflective function, insofar as the biographer (that is, who carries it out) chooses the most significant moments in the life of the biographer, relates them, measures them, criticizes and extracts certain conclusions. So it's about more than just recounting someone's life.

Between literary genres narratives, the biography has an important publishing market, as well as a set of scholars and theorists in the academy. Among the discussions that the latter contemplate is the possible impartiality or objectivity of the genre, historical fidelity, etc.

It is also possible to call a biography or, more commonly, a biographical review or a biographical summary to the short texts that accompany professional or bureaucratic documents, indicating the professional career of their authors (their Curriculum vitae abbreviated), or those short texts that do the same with the trajectory of an author or an artist, and that accompany their products cultural: records, books, etc.

Characteristics of biographies

In general, biographies are characterized by the following:

  • Are research historical-literary that recompose the life of a character, or at least the most relevant and representative moments of his life.
  • They constitute an intermediate genre between the narrative and the rehearsal.
  • They aspire to a certain degree of objectivity, that is, of historical fidelity, without distorting events at the biographer's convenience, or omitting events that could contradict him; but at the same time they intend to draw conclusions, reflections and knowledge from the life of the biographer.
  • They can be very diverse in scope, from voluminous volume studies to summaries very brief.

Biography types

There are many ways to classify the biographical genre, giving rise to branches and sub-branches, depending on the perspective.

As approved by the biographer:

  • Authorized biography. It has the approval and endorsement of the biographer or his heirs, and therefore subject to certain standards of validation and / or censorship.
  • Unauthorized biography. The responsibility it rests entirely with the biographer and may have been written against the will of the biographer.

According to who writes it:

  • Autobiography. It is written by the biographer himself.
  • Biography. It is written by a third party.
  • False autobiographies. They are the rare cases in which it is fictional or fantastic (auto) biographies, written more as a literary exercise than anything else.

There are other narrative genres close to biography, of a testimonial or confessional type, in which the narrator recounts episodes of his life, or relates things he witnessed, serving as a witness to the history. Thus, it is usual to talk about memories, confessions, testimonies or diaries, as the case may be. And these can be considered (auto) biographical subgenres.

Biographical genre history

Since classical antiquity there have been essays and Chronicles biographical, often for moralizing or pedagogical purposes, as is the case Parallel lives and of Life of the twelve Caesars, of the Romans Plutarch (c. 46 - c. 120) and Suetonius (c. 70-126).

It was a widely cultivated genus, which in Middle Ages Europe focused on the lives of Christian saints (thus founding hagiography), often anonymously or collaboratively. Such is the case, in the thirteenth century, of the Life of Saint Mary Egyptian , a minstrel biographical poem, or the Golden legend (In latin Legenda sanctorum or "Lecturas sobre los santos"), a compilation of hagiographies made by Santiago de la Vorágine, Archbishop of Genoa.

However, the literary genre of biography formally came into existence in the Renaissance European, fruit of secularism and anthropocentrism that this movement promoted. Thus, the saints and personalities of the medieval world gave biographical importance to personalities of the civil, artistic or military world, often in the form of biographical dictionaries.

Some of the earliest works of the genre were the Historical and critical dictionary of 1696, published by the French philosopher and writer Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), and the later works of the abbe Jean-Baptiste Ladvocat in 1753.

The biographical genre took a turn in the 19th century when the Romanticism delved into the inner life of the biographer. In addition, he valued the literary aspect of the work above even its historical fidelity.

But this romantic drift came to an end when the Realism and Positivism imposed their criteria of objectivity on gender. Thus was demanded from the biographer a documentary research with demonstrable sources, rather than creativity Y poetry. The ability to place oneself in the proper historical and social context of the biographer was valued.

Thus was born the modern idea of ​​biography, still in force, despite the fact that today it is also possible to find literary biographies, of a much freer spirit, or even false biographies that are entirely fiction, such as the Nazi literature in America by the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003).

How to write a biography?

Like any literary or documentary work, a biography is usually a significant challenge for the writer, and depending on the length, the desired level of depth, and the breadth of the research, it can be a short project or one that takes several years of work.

However, a very general outline of the steps to follow to write a biography would have to include something like the following:

  • Step 1: make decisions. The first thing to decide is who will be the biographer, and why. The first because without that choice it is not possible to move forward, and the second because taking into account why we chose that character, we will know what approach we seek to give to our biography. We must also know if we want to make a full biography, from birth to birth. death (or to the present, if he still lives), or a partial biography, which takes into account only one period of the biographer's life.
  • Step 2: investigate. Obviously the next step is read, and a lot. We must investigate practically everything about the life of the biographer: where and when he was born, what the context of the time was like, what social stratum he belonged to, what his first years of life were like, what relevant historical events marked him, how he reached adulthood, what fundamental determinations he made in his life, what successes he had, what failures he had, what partners and consorts, what offspring and when, in short, as much as possible, taking into account the parameters that we have already set in the previous step.
  • Step 2.5: establish contrasts. As part of the investigation, we must also read other available biographies and contrast our point of view with that of other biographers, to know what things have been said about our already biographed character, how and why. This is important because we could discover a new point of view, information that contradicts other biographers or, on the contrary, their points of view can yield key ideas for ours.
  • Step 3: write the bio. Any lengthy work requires slow, phased writing, usually beginning with a scheme of the topics to be addressed and then with a first draft that tries to cover them all, thus organizing the information little by little, without paying attention to style yet. Subsequently, a new writing will be necessary, now refining the language and the literary look, and taking advantage of modifying what has already been written to refine, enhance or suppress it. This process will culminate in a spelling and style revision, which may well be in the hands of another person or a professional of the area.

Examples of biographies

Some different examples of bio are as follows:

  • "Brief biography of Simón Bolívar" by Manuel Pérez Vila in the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library.
  • "Vincent van Gogh: Biography" in Van Gogh Gallery.
  • "Biographical Synthesis of Martín Miguel de Güemes" by Jorge A. Gianella in the Government of Salta (Argentina).
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