Biography - The Genre

What is Biography?

Biography, as an art form, developed recently.  Suetonius Lives of Caesars and Plutarch’s Lives are classical biographies, which are in the form of odd notes.  John Aubrey’s Brief Lives written in the 17^th century is more of a gossip.

In 1683, Dryden used the term ‘biography’ for the first time.  He defined biography as “the history of particular men’s lives.”  It does not have a proper form.  It is not governed by any artistic principle.  The Oxford dictionary defines biography as “history of lives of individual men as a branchy of literature.”  Harold Nicolson defines biography as “a truthful record of an individual, composed as a work of art”

Biography differs from history.  It is a record of the life of one individual.  It studies its subject both within and without.  The character and exploits of the subject are most important.  Biography should be no more than a formal praise than a verbal attack.  It should be a faithful picture of a subject, with virtues and faults.  Biography should be work of art, something that will leave the reader a lasting impression.  It should rebuild a living man from his death.  An ideal biography is like a novel of character with verifiable facts.  Apart from the artistic quality, a biography should also be helpful to a historian by giving the details of contemporary history.  A biographer must be truthful and beauty comes from it.

Pure and Impure Biography

            Pure biography would give a perfect picture of the development of both the external and the inner life of its subject.  A few factors may intervene as a hindrance to achieve it and this makes it impure.  The most common of the factors is to conceal the truth and speak nothing but good of the subject.  The Victorian biographers talk only about the virtues and the modern biographers talk only about the foibles.  Both are wrong.

The second factor making for impurity is author’s own views and prejudices.  The author must stand away from the subject so that he can view it clearly.  He must avoid his personal interest and have only professional interest.  The author should not substitute moral and other utilitarian aims in his biography.  Biography must stand or fall for itself.  It must be faithful to the history of the human soul.

Basis of Biographical Instinct

The basic instinct of biography is man.  The biographer should capture the individuality of his subject and show the common touch of humanity.  As in novel, biography’s psychological element has become more interesting and significant than mere record of events.

Difficulties of the Biographer

            It is extremely difficult for a biographer to present a life of a man who is not of his age.  Biography is a herculean task in which failure is more likely than success.  Another important difficulty is that it is difficult to contain a life history within certain pages.  Doing full justice to human life is impossible.  The next difficulty is that half of man is his thought.  It is difficult is bring the thought process of another man in the biography.  Even then English literature is rich with its biographies.

Modern Tendencies

            In modern days, biographers are intended in ruthless dissection of the subject.  Debunking is the popular used for biographies which talks about human weakness.  They belittle the characters by magnifying their trivial matters.  In modern days, application of psychology has resulted in over emphasizing certain motives.  Modern biographers are also interested in presenting the exact social background and environment of their subject.  The biographer must therefore be a historian, philosopher and a psychologist.