95:, noted, "Writers are articulate and tend to leave eloquent source material which the biographer will be eager to use." The opposite may also be the case, some authors and artists go out of their way to discourage the writing of their biographies, as was the case with Kafka, Eliot, Orwell and Auden. Auden said, "Biographies of writers whether written by others or themselves are always superfluous and usually in bad taste.... His private life is, or should be, of no concern to anybody except himself, his family and his friends."
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76:(complete body of works) against the biographical content to create a coherent narrative of the subject-author's live. This balance is interpretively-influenced by the degree of biographical elements inherent in an author's literary works. The close relationship between writers and their work relies on ideas that connect human psychology and literature and can be examined through
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that takes a historical individual and recreates elements of his or her life, while telling a fictional narrative, usually in the genres of film or the novel. The relationship between the biographical and the fictional may vary within different pieces of biographical fiction. It frequently includes
321:
Autobiographical fiction, or autofiction, is fiction that incorporates the author's own experience into the narrative. It allows authors to both relay and reflect on their own experience. However, the reading of the autobiographical fiction need not always be associated with the author. Such books
72:. Not only does the author of the biography have to write about the subject of the biography but also must incorporate discussion of the subject-author's literary works into the biography itself. Literary biographers must balance the weight of commentary on the subject-author's
67:
A literary biography is the biographical exploration of individuals' lives merging historical facts with the conventions of narrative. Biographies about artists and writers are sometimes some of the most complicated forms of
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Like any critical methodology, biographical criticism can be used with discretion and insight or employed as a superficial shortcut to understanding the literary work on its own terms through such strategies as
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selective information and self-censoring of the past. The characters are often real people or based on real people, but the need for "truthful" representation is less strict than in
554:"Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets (1779–81) was the first thorough-going exercise in biographical criticism, the attempt to relate a writer's background and life to his works."
240:
The various philosophies behind biographical fiction lead to different types of content. Some assert themselves as a factual narrative about the historical individual, like
273:
Biographical fiction has its roots in late 19th and early 20th-century novels based loosely on the lives of famous people, but without direct reference to them, such as
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which analyzes a writer's biography to show the relationship between the author's life and their literary works. Biographical criticism is often associated with
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Notwithstanding this critique, biographical criticism remained a significant mode of literary inquiry throughout the 20th century, particularly in studies of
250:. Other biographical fiction creates two parallel strands of narrative, one in the contemporary world and one focusing on the biographical history, such as
515:
Wilfred L. Guerin, A handbook of critical approaches to literature, Edition 5, 2005, page 51, 57-61; Oxford
University Press, University of Michigan
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293:(1919). During the early part of the 20th century this became a distinct genre, with novels that were explicitly about individuals' lives.
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270:. No matter what style of biographical fiction is used, the novelist usually starts the writing process with historical research.
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154:, a critical method that "sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of its author's life and times".
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51:. Conversely, two genres of fiction rely heavily on the incorporation of biographical elements into their content:
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Autobiographical fiction includes the thoughts and view of the narrator which describes their way of thinking.
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contains a plethora of autobiographical information and who welcome the biographical analysis of their work.
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626:"Heavy on the source John Mullan analyses The Master by Colm Tóibín. Week three: biographical fiction"
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Lees, Francis Noel (1967) "The Keys Are at the Palace: A Note on
Criticism and Biography" pp. 135-149
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Literary
Criticism and Historical Understanding: Selected Papers from the English Institute
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Stuart, Duane Reed (1922). "Biographical
Criticism of Vergil since the Renaissance".
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197:, among others. The method continues to be employed in the study of such authors as
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139:(1779–81) was possibly the first thorough-going exercise in biographical criticism.
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or biographical approaches to the past as a tool for interpreting literature:
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Benson, Jackson J. (1989). "Steinbeck: A Defense of
Biographical Criticism".
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Princeton
University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, page 326 and following,
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This longstanding critical method dates back at least to the
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Longford, Elizabeth "Wilfrid Scawen Blunt" of Meyers (ed.)
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Discussed extensively in Frye, Herman
Northrop (1947)
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Literary biography may address subject-authors whose
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http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/criticism
385:Karl, Frederick R. "Joseph Conrad" in Meyers (ed.)
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414:Meyers, Jeffrey "Introduction" in Meyers (ed.)
477:"Walt Whitman and New Biographical Criticism"
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322:may be treated as distinct fictional works.
33:biography and its relationship to literature
98:Well-received literary biographies include
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589:Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake
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161:period, and was employed extensively by
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730:. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan.
571:Columbia University Press, New York,
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611:(1999),pp. 19-27, 40-43, 45, 47, 395
677:. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
344:Literary biography: an introduction
183:of the 1920s, who coined the term "
228:Biographical fiction is a type of
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152:historical-biographical criticism
123:This section is an excerpt from
702:The Craft of Literary Biography
673:Backscheider, Paula R. (1999).
567:Damon, Philip (editor) (1967)
346:. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
624:Mullan, John (30 April 2005).
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700:Jeffrey Meyers, ed. (1985).
475:Knoper, Randall K. (2003).
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726:Dale Salwak, ed. (1996).
675:Reflections on biography
342:Benton, Michael (2009).
297:Autobiographical fiction
57:autobiographical fiction
317:Autobiographical comics
728:The Literary Biography
607:Schiffer, James (ed),
313:Autobiographical novel
280:Diana of the Crossways
144:Biographical criticism
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125:Biographical criticism
118:Biographical criticism
49:biographical criticism
35:is often a subject of
704:. London: MacMillan.
494:10.1353/lit.2003.0010
290:The Moon and Sixpence
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78:psychoanalytic theory
527:Studies in Philology
214:Biographical fiction
185:biographical fallacy
53:biographical fiction
18:Biographical fiction
765:Literature by topic
373:Backschneider 11-13
207:William Shakespeare
195:F. Scott Fitzgerald
760:Literary criticism
481:College Literature
447:College Literature
262:Michael Cunningham
230:historical fiction
220:Biographical novel
168:Lives of the Poets
148:literary criticism
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137:Lives of the Poets
91:, a biographer of
89:Elizabeth Longford
63:Literary biography
45:literary biography
37:literary criticism
755:Biography (genre)
650:. 8 February 2009
499:Project MUSE
353:978-1-4051-9446-4
307:Autobiografiction
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533:(1): 1–30.
429:"Criticism"
303:Autofiction
283:(1885) and
181:New Critics
171:(1779–81).
159:Renaissance
104:James Joyce
749:Categories
402:, pp 55-68
389:, pp 69–88
329:References
311:See also:
242:Gore Vidal
218:See also:
29:literature
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416:The Craft
400:The Craft
387:The Craft
267:The Hours
235:biography
177:Formalism
70:biography
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247:Lincoln
165:in his
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