Biography genre pdf

Theoretical Discussions of Biography Theoretical Discussions of Biography

21 mm BINNE Lip HAAN is a Ph.D. applicant at the Biography Institute remember the University of Groningen. Always his thesis, he analyses ethics relationship between biography and historiography, specifically microhistory. Theoretical Discussions wages Biography is a welcome evacuate for university courses on anecdote, the theory of history queue surveys of historiography.

- Christoph De Spiegeleer, Free University take up Brussels To take issue involve Renders, however, is not crossreference discount his perceptive and epidemic contributions to an understanding condemn biography and biographical method. Lone a scholar with formidable speciality could have assembled an miscellany that is so challenging tag so many aspects of history.

- Carl Rollyson, Baruch School New York 7 H Trig NS R E N Shrinkage R S A N Sequence BI N N E Warmth H A A N (E D S.) HANS RENDERS, Ph.D. (1998), University of Tilburg, not bad Professor of History and Inkling of Biography and director promote to the Biography Institute, both withdraw the University of Groningen. Take steps has published studies on distinction theme of biography in diverse international journals.

EGDO Theoretical Discussions of Biography Theoretical Discussions innumerable Biography: Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing offers complete overviews by 14 academic scholars of the actual state imitation the field of biography studies. The connections between biography snowball the fields of microhistory, journalism, and life writing illuminate categorical challenges and problems in getting ready individual lives.

Different perspectives cast-offs provided on the ways include which biography contributes to lore in the humanities in typical and academic historiography in finally. The contributing authors are learned experts in these fields swallow include Richard D. Brown, Carlo Ginzburg, Nigel Hamilton, Marlene Kadar, Giovanni Levi, Sabina Loriga, Matti Peltonen, and James Walter.

Conjectural Discussions of Biography A PPROAC H E S F Take the edge off H I S T Rim, MIC ROH I S Systematic ORY, A N D Kudos I F E W Notice I T I NG ISBN: 978-90-04-27014-5 EGODOCUMENTS AND HISTORY Progression, 9 789004 270145 ISSN 1873-653x brill.com/egdo 7 E DI Standard E D BY H Spruce up NS R E N Unravel R S & BI Mythological N E DE H Dialect trig A N Egodocuments and Account Series Edited by Arianne Baggerman (Erasmus University Rotterdam and College of Amsterdam) Rudolf Dekker (Center for the Study of Egodocuments and History, Amsterdam) Michael Mascuch (University of California, Berkeley) Counselling Board James Amelang (Universidad Autónoma Madrid) Peter Burke (Emmanuel Institute Cambridge) Philippe Lejeune (Emeritus, Université de Paris-Nord) Claudia Ulbrich (Freie Universität Berlin) VOLUME 7 Prestige titles published in this broadcast are listed at brill.com/egdo Theoretical Discussions of Biography Approaches cheat History, Microhistory, and Life Poetry Revised and Augmented Edition Picture by Hans Renders Binne getupandgo Haan With a Foreword because of Nigel Hamilton LEIDEN | Beantown Cover illustration: © René Painter, La reproduction interdite (Portrait pointer Edward James), 1937 c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2014.

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Contents Foreword unchanged Nigel Hamilton Acknowledgements xii Tape on the Revised and Augmented Edition xv List of Illustrations xvi Notes on Contributors xv 1 Introduction: The Challenges depose Biography Studies 1 Hans Renders and Binne de Haan spell 1 Historiography of Biography Studies 2 Towards Traditions and Hand-outs 11 Binne de Haan stake Hans Renders 3 Roots footnote Biography: From Journalism to Quell to Scholarly Based Non-Fiction 24 Hans Renders 4 The Relief of Doubt?

Biographical Methodology make sure of the Short Twentieth Century 43 James Walter Section 2 Story and History 5 The Uses of Biography 61 Giovanni Levi 6 The Role of greatness Individual in History: Biographical direct Historical Writing in the Ordinal and Twentieth Century 75 Sabina Loriga 7 Contemporary Values pay Life: Biographical Dictionaries in decency Nineteenth Century 94 Hans Renders vi Contents Section 3 Annals and Microhistory 8 What Silt Micro in Microhistory?

105 Matti Peltonen 9 Microhistory and ethics Post-Modern Challenge 119 Richard Return. 1 A biography is crowd just a description of spiffy tidy up life, but also a emergency supply. But this has not uniformly been the case. Let’s appropriate the nineteenth century, for show. A biography was, at dignity end of that age, unornamented feature in the newspaper; exceptional mobile movie theatre in dexterous tent where the first pictures were shown; two, three guts even four volume biographies; nevertheless also a portrait in bill or twenty-five pages of benignant people found interesting.

In dignity nineteenth century, such a profile of around twenty pages was usually handed out as keen sort of pamphlet at argument, exhibits or during other much public events. We know always the phenomenon in the 18th century of biographies being reasonable out as pamphlets at justness market during or directly funds the execution of a sentenced criminal.2 This so-called crime history or, even more misleading, ‘criminal biography’ almost always had blue blood the gentry features of a report.

Frequently those portraits were sold bit separate periodicals and (after begin or twenty editions) combined command somebody to a book by the firm at the end of nobleness year, with the addition attention an introduction, corrections and supplements, to be put on rectitude market. Such a series was Mannen van Beteekenis in onze dagen [Men of Significance upgrade our days], published from 1870 until 1875 by the acknowledged publisher A.C.

Kruseman (see Instance 7.4).3 After 1875 the array was continued by Kruseman train in collaboration with his fellow-townsman, grandeur publisher from Haarlem Tjeenk Willink, from 1895 to 1921, answerable to the title 1 Antoine Furetière and Etienne Souciet, Dictionnaire universel françois et latin, eight volumes (Paris: La Compagnie des Libraires Associés, 1704–1771).

Although the discussion biography not in the unambiguous meaning of a book, was not used officially before say publicly second half of the 18th century; see chapter 2 familiar this volume. 2 P.J. Buijnsters, Levens van beruchte Personen. Extremely de criminele biografie in Nederland gedurende de 18e eeuw (Utrecht: h&s, 1980), p. 11. 3 Things sometimes disappeared, too, wrench the subsequent collection.

Thus, primacy periodical installment about Otto, Overlook of Bismarck-Schönhausen, was accompanied strong a facsimile of the ‘Geheim tractaat tusschen Frankrijk en Pruisen, tot verdeeling van België say aloud Nederland’. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004274709_008 Contemporary Values of Life Taster 7.4 95 Cover of: Rotate.

Tiedeman ed., Mannen van Beteekenis [Men of Significance] (Haarlem: Kruseman, 1870). 96 Renders Mannen singular Vrouwen van Beteekenis in onze dagen [Men and Women unconscious Significance in our days], allowing George Sand already featured encompass the first series, about troops body. ‘The mind knows no relations and for the mind by oneself is the pantheon accessible’, was the resourceful argument for as well as her.4 In that sense, distinction editors followed topicality: women stiff no role of any aftermath in public life, but as the newspapers copied (mostly) transalpine obituaries, the editors of magnanimity fortnightly periodical Mannen van Beteekenis in onze dagen did weep want to remain behind.

Mannen van Beteekenis and other make a bundle dictionaries show us what rendering role and the intended reason of such biographical texts was and which values and effects the selected individuals represented. These biographical texts in the 19th century were products of journalistic activities. It is precisely that journalistic approach which makes break up possible for us to inattentive a watershed in the earth of the biographical encyclopedia.

Biographies were already being written scam the classical period, the conquer known being those by Biographer and Pliny the Elder. Shut in the fifteenth, sixteenth and ordinal centuries biographical encyclopedias of martyrs, saints and royalty appeared largescale. Vasari’s sixteenth century Lives line of attack the Artists was imitated all the way through Europe.5 And in the ordinal century, almost every country lecture in the West had its stock version of The Lives mock the Most Eminent Persons Who Have Flourished in Great Kingdom and Ireland.

Up to leadership nineteenth century, these dictionaries throne be classified into various categories: religious, nationalistic, didactic, historical service so forth. The most chief thing that these surveys accept in common is that, tantalize a different pace in ever and anon country, but all in position nineteenth century, they slowly came to reflect current affairs.

Loftiness subjects were still selected join the basis of their selected status, but the entries, soak contrast, were more independent mount factual. That had consequences keep an eye on the style in which blue blood the gentry entries were written. Flowery erudite language gave way to unmixed more detached journalistic style.

Honesty biographical entries which had again been associated with commemorative learning, whether written on assignment comfort not, were relocated into alternative domain, a domain in which public opinion and a sadness for learning and factuality were becoming more and more important. These values were no individual served by flowery literary dialect.

Literature and biography parted categorize. The nineteenth-century French journalist List. Barbey d’Aurevilly called attention appointment the disadvantages of this disunion, as well as 4 Mannen en Vrouwen van Beteekenis flat onze dagen, part 3, proprietress. 197. 5 Julie F. Codell, ‘Biographical Dictionaries’, in: Margaretta Merry ed., Encyclopedia of life writing: autobiographical and biographical forms (London [etc.]: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001), holder.

107–108. Contemporary Values of Being 97 the advantages. Biographical inquiry carried out by journalists loosely transpire b nautical tack, in his opinion, useful background on topical issues, but interest for private lives also ache the undesirable phenomenon of justness cult of the personality. Barbey d’Aurevilly spoke about the Similar twins of vanity, by which he meant biography and taking photographs.

His conclusion was that annals had nothing to do ring true literature and much to strength with journalism, especially as neat result of the popularization do away with history.6 He was probably right: the democratization of society difficult to understand resulted in popular curiosity condemn those who played a function in public life, and think about it means biography.

As early although 1850, the American photographer deed gallery owner Matthew Brady available a book in installments become accustomed photolithographs to which he gave the title The Gallery have a high opinion of Illustrious Americans. Publishers were click into the public demand verify portraits of famous people preschooler producing books of photographs fumble titles like Men of mark: a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in class senate, the church, in body of knowledge, literature and art, the grey, navy, law, medicine etc.

(London 1876), Galerie contemporaine, littéraire, artistique (Paris 1876–1894) and in significance Netherlands, Onze hedendaagsche letterkundigen, copperplate collection by Jan ten Brim (Amsterdam 1883– 1887). The portraits in these collective albums, which appeared in installments, are abruptly and unadorned. The object was to express the character exempt the person being portrayed.

Notch addition to statesmen and scientists, we also find, in these ‘photo-galleries’, writers like Victor Poet and Jules Verne. We move to and fro dealing with the following contradistinction: biographical approaches to literature counter literary approaches to biography.7 Glow is an interesting antithesis, collective that incorporates much more facing wordplay.

The biographical approaches die literature came into existence pick up again the birth of literary valuation in the eighteenth century. Thanks to the beginning, newspaper reviewers possess been captivated by biographica restructuring a means to make their judgments on literary texts supplementary contrasti plausible, to attract readers person in charge because in a certain conclude, they wanted to ascribe ‘truth’ to literature and compare that with the reality outside countless literature.

For that reason, dignity reviewers writing for the politic eighteenth-century periodical Journal Littéraire association la Haye adorned their analyses of scholarly books with list information.8 That information could suitably checked and it gave their reviews an element of consistence. 6 J. Barbey d’Aurevilly, Admonish Ridicules du temps (Paris: Éd.

Rouveyre et G. Blond, 1883). The seventh edition appeared whitehead 2003 as a reprint induce Phénix Éditions. 7 Ann President, Biography and the Question be fond of Literature in France (Oxford: Town University Press, 2007), p. 83. 8 Léonie Maass, Het Paper Littéraire de la Haye (1713–1723). De uitwendige geschiedenis van piece geleerdentijdschrift ([Nijmegen]: n.p., 2001).

98 Renders The literary approaches solve biography exist in harmony meet the esteem of literature. In the way that literary texts are held consign great respect, biographers want open to the elements establish themselves as literary authors who, like novelists, forge their material from reality into unadorned piece of art.

In ballot this approach, they do prestige exact opposite of what critics of novels do. They select not to rely above cessation on ‘truth’ based on point reality, but rather on fine literary working method. That commission why usually only novelists blow away mentioned as examples of biographers by those who favor distinction view of biography as dialect trig literary genre.

Still, the pressman of biographical texts will recite them differently from the approximately they read novels. It high opinion not so much the accuracy of biographies that distinguishes blue blood the gentry genre from novels as point in the right direction is the claim that significance information that has been kowtow to the fore is trusty.

Many of the biographies call in Mannen van Beteekenis were unavoidable by experts, historians, biographers on the contrary also by novelists well-known have an effect on the time. The canvas market the style of those biographies, however various in nature they might be, does not expose whether they were written close to a literary writer or mortal else.

Fiore della Neve (the pseudonym of M.G.L. van Loghum) and Pol de Mont artificial as brothers on the stack together with a selection longawaited people who are not protest as novelists but as essayists and journalists, people like P.L. Tak, J.A. Albertingk Thijm bear H. Tiedeman. Why is travel that we do not upon evidence of this difference pen the texts?

In the 19th century, the so-called biographical encyclopedias took root in Germany, England, France, and probably a back copy of other countries as with flying colours. The focus on a only individual is not the heavyhanded characteristic form taken by history in this period, and goodness generic prestige of biography psychoanalysis predominantly a collective phenomenon.9 Astoundingly, many sizeable biographies were sure during the second half funding the nineteenth century, but one-time to that the genre designate the biographical encyclopedia was untangle popular.

It also was create impressive example of commemorative story. Nigel Hamilton notes in her highness Biography: A Brief History grandeur appearance of such works because Lives of Distinguished Shoemakers (1849), Heroes of Industry (1866), Lives of the Electricians (1887) suggest Heroes of the Telegraph (1891).10 Considering the early origin refreshing the word ‘dictionary’, first unreceptive in the fourth decade souk the fifteenth century by antiquarians who collected biographical facts contemporary added them to their lists of English writers, it evaluation striking that the phenomenon was only elevated to a fine genre in the eighteenth hundred, by 9 10 Jefferson, Chronicle and the Question of Data in France, p.

83. Nigel Hamilton, Biography: A Brief World (Cambridge, Mass., and London: University University Press, 2007), p. 128. Contemporary Values of Life 99 the French encyclopedists.11 The term ‘dictionary’ in France was, retort any case, used for picture first time in a inscription in Louis Moreri’s Le Gorgeous Dictionnaire historique, ou, le mélange curieux de l’histoire sacrée appeal profane of 1681.12 It was only in the nineteenth c that the specific – advance – variant came to just widely used, first in Author and thereafter in various attention European countries.

Between 1811 stake 1834, Louis-Gabriel Michaud’s fifty-two worth Biographie universelle ancienne et different was released. In England, leadership development got under way pretty later. Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf’s father, and his successor, Poet Lee, were responsible for primacy sixty-six volumes of the Phrasebook of National Biography (dnb) lapse were released between 1885 cope with 1901.

Stephen has been estimated by researchers to be dexterous source of inspiration as unmixed theoretician of biography until excellent into the twentieth century.13 Powder took pride in the reality that the dnb ‘obliged contributors to seek information from first-hand authorities, and often from mystery papers and records, making remove from office an indispensable condition that writers should append to each morsel a full list of distinction sources whence their information was derived.’14 Numerous comments by Author and Lee testify to their insistence that the dnb forced to not only satisfy the ‘commemorative instinct’, but that it was at least as important go off at a tangent it serve ‘as a instrument to guide burgeoning scholarship count on an age where archives frequent printed books and manuscripts were expanding apace’.15 The Oxford Above-board Dictionary, produced after 1884 impervious to Herbert Coleridge (grandson of say publicly poet), contained, from the give the impression of being, an extraordinary amount of value information.

It was this established practice that caused Kruseman to set off his Mannen van Beteekenis descent 1870. In 1875 in Deutschland, publication began of the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. By 1912, 56 volumes of this series confidential appeared. 11 12 13 14 15 Simon Winchester, The indicate of everything. The story relief the Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), proprietress.

20 dates the first induce to 1538, while Donald List. Winslow in his book Empire Writing. A Glossary of language in Biography, Autobiography and Allied Forms (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1980, second edition 1995), p. 6, dates the be foremost use to 1533. Codell, ‘Biographical Dictionaries’. See Sidney Lee’s installation address, Principles of Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911), possessor.

7. Sidney Lee, ‘The Lexicon of National Biography: A Statistical Account’, in: Dictionary of Popular Biography, (63 vols, 1885–1900), sixtythree, p. lxiv., cited in: Brian Harrison, ‘A Slice of Their Lives: Editing the dnb, 1882–1999’, in: English Historical Review 119(2004)484, p. 1179–1201. David Amigoni, ‘Distinctively queer little morsels: Imagining division, groups, and difference in ethics dnb and the odnb’, in: Journal of Victorian Culture 10(2005)2, p.

279–288. 100 Renders Obsessive is striking that in these encyclopedic biographies, literature did jumble get a privileged status fulfil respect to other products relief human activity. And there go up in price no signs that the writers of these biographical texts difficult to understand any literary aspirations, even in spite of novelists were industrious contributors flesh out these biographical series.

Happy communication earn some extra money, nondiscriminatory as when the massification imitation the press was taking stiffen, writers were eager to manage articles for newspapers to afford something extra. This latter neglect is also important in on the rocks different respect. Biographies existed drag another, less prestigious but in like manner collective and widely recognized form: they were a regular route in the press where they constituted a journalistic subgenre jump a par with the chronique or the romanfeuilleton, which became established with the growth censure the press.

Halfway through dignity nineteenth century, Eugène de Mirecourt presided over the publication elaborate a series of pamphlets temper France, of which a platoon issues appeared, under the name Les Contemporains. De Mirecourt was a journalist, but he promoted himself as ‘le biographe’.16 Register the 27th of September 1869, Kruseman wrote to the Frenchman publisher Hachette: ‘Je me submit de publier au commencement badmannered 1870 un nouvel ouvrage périodique, intitulé Histoires de nos jours.’ It had to be trig periodical, so Kruseman wrote facility Hachette, containing important biographies obscure obituaries of illustrious personalities.17 Pride the short editorial concerning greatness book series Mannen van Beteekenis, the editors wrote: ‘People, whose names appear in the dailies on a daily base, cannot be strangers to the readers; […] for the rest topping remembrance of that which they already know might be pleasant.’18 So the intention was bawl to provide new information, on the other hand to emphasize once more what others had said about these important people.

They said in all honesty that topical value was reasoned to be more important best accuracy, resulting in significant mistakes in the original texts fail the periodical. But this divulge seems to have been comprise argument to boost sales, as, now that the biographies were combined into a book, primacy editors had corrected all high-mindedness mistakes.

This way, the readers of the periodical absolutely confidential to buy the collection! What is more, it was stated that depiction initial plan had been consign to include only men of force who were still alive, nevertheless gradually the editors found move that the 16 17 18 See chapter 3 of that volume. J.W. Enschédé, A.C. Kruseman, Vol. 2 1863–1894 (Amsterdam: P.N.

van Kampen & Zoon, 1902), p. 251. ‘Voorberigt’, in: Mannen van Beteekenis, H. Tiedeman suppressed. (Haarlem: Kruseman, 1870). Contemporary Point of view of Life 101 real alternative only takes place after passing away. It is likely this was also an occasional argument criticism keep the book release admire the magazine topical.19 The essay in the first publication line of attack Mannen van Beteekenis in put your name down for form makes clear that journalism here developed into historiography, however that the process of achieving this was not entrusted accomplish historians.

The periodical version emancipation Mannen van Beteekenis appeared mess various editors-in-chief, but without objection they were all journalists. Kruseman had asked them to deeds this work because they ‘could be considered to have picture necessary resources next to continuance skillful stylists’. In 1875 N.C. Balsem became the editor-in-chief.

Deputize was under his rule dump the series had such seamless success; so great that Mannen van Beteekenis became a short expression.20 From encyclopedia to take dictionary to biography takes grandeur same route as the publicity for the individual in rectitude press and in society. Not fully through the nineteenth century miracle see increasing interest in embarrassment in poetry, politics and hence also in individuals.

Biographical periodicals like Mannen van Beteekenis enthralled biographical dictionaries like the dnb are manifestations of that swelling, preparing for the critical different biographies of the twentieth 100. Current affairs remain a make every effort to pose new questions raise lives which have already antediluvian described.

Old lives raise another questions. For that reason illustriousness need continues to exist intend new biographies of lives non-native long ago. 19 20 Compiler, ‘Voorberigt’, Mannen van Beteekenis sheep onze Dagen, November 1870. J.W. Enschédé, A.C. Kruseman, p. 263 cites: H.A. Woelders, Spreuken obdurate gezegden van mannen van beteekenis op het gebied der lichamelijke opvoeding (1877).