A brief introduction to Autobiography

1. Welcome you all
By
Mrs. S. Malathi
Assistant Professor of English
V. V. V. College for Women
Virudhunagar

2. LIFE WRITING
AUTOBIOGRAPHY

3. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• Derived from the Greek “autos” (self), “bios”
(life) and “grapheir” (write)
• It is a self-written account of life of a person.
• Was first used by William Taylor in 1797 in the
English periodical “The Monthly Review”.
• Then it was used by Robber society in 1809.
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4. Definition
Dr. Johnson- “Everyman’s life is best written by
himself”.
Longfellow – “Autobiography is a product of first
hand experience, Biography of second hand
knowledge”.
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5. Example of Autobiography
1. St. Augustine’s “Confessions” (5th century
A.D.) is the earliest example in Europe of full
and frank self analysis.
2. Rosseau’s “Confessions” in the latter half of
the 18th Century.
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6. Themes of autobiographies
• Notable English autobiographers David Hume,
Edward Gibbon and Benjamin Franklin used
subjective themes.
• Sir Sober Sitwell, Left hand, Right hand used
objective themes in their autobiography.
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7. Spiritual Autobiography
• Is an account of an author’s struggle or
journey towards god.
Eg: Augustine’s “Confessions”
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8. Fictional Autobiography
• Signifies novels about a fictional character
writer as though the character were writing
their own autobiography which addresses
both internal and external experiences of the
character.
Eg: Daniel Defoe’s “Moll Flanders”, Charles
Dickens’ “David Copperfield” and Charlottte
Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”
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9. History of Autobiography
• Classical Period – autobiographical works
were named as Apologia, Oration or
Confession. These works were considered as
self-justification rather than self-
documentation.
Eg: John Henry Newman’s “Apologia Provita
Sua” (1864).
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10. History of Autobiography
• Augustine(354-430) and Jean Jacques
Rousseau (18th century) used the same title
“Confessions” to their autobiographical works.
• Augustine’s “Confessions”- great masterpieces
of western literature.
• Celine’s “Vita” (1556-58) is one of the first and
great autobiographies of the Renaissance.
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11. History of Autobiography
• In English, “Book of Margery Kemp” is the
earliest autobiography published in the early
15th Century. This book remained in
Manuscript and was not published in 1936.
• 17th Century notable English autobiographies
– “Lord Herbert’s Cherub” and John Bunyan’s
“Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners”
(1666).
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12. History of Autobiography
• Notable autobiographers of the 19th Century
are Charles Dickens (incorporated
autobiographical elements in his novels),
Anton Trollope, John Stuart Mill, John Henry
Newman and P.T. Barnum.
• William Hazlitt’s “Liber Amoris” (1823) is
about the painful love-life of the author.
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13. History of Autobiography
• 20th Century – Rudyard Kipling, George
Moore, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi
and Pundit Nehru.
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14. Memoir
• Autobiography focuses on the “life and times”
while Memory is on his/her own feeling and
emotions.
Eg: Julius Caesar’s “Commentaries on the Gallic
wars”.
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15. • In English, 17th Century – Samuel Pepys and
John Evelyn
• 18th Century- Fanny Burney
• 19th Century- Thomas Geneve and Charles
Goreville
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16. Letters
• Letters have deep human interest and very
great historical importance.
Eg: Dorothy Osborne, Thomas Gray, William
Cowper, Horace Walpole and John Keats
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17. Differences between Biography and Autobiography
Biography Autobiography
Detailed account of person’s life written
by someone else
Is written by the subject themselves
Can be written with or without
permission of the person
is self-written and does not require any
authorization
Contains the second hand knowledge has First hand experience and
information because it was self-written
by the author himself
From a third person’s view and less
intimate
The author uses first person narratives
which creates an intimate connection
between the writer and the reader
Purpose- to introduce and inform about
a particular person and his life since birth
till death
Is written to express the life experience
and achievements of the narrator by
himself since his birth, he has to
conclude it at particular age
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18. Examples of English Autobiography
• Helen Keller’s - The Story of My Life”
• Jawaharlal Nehru - “An Autobiography”
• M. K. Gandhi – “The Story of My Experiments
with Truth”
• Kamala Das – “My Story”
• Anne Frank – “The Diary of a Young Girl”
• A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – “Wings of Fire”
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19. Difficulties of the Autobiographer
• Hard for a man to write of himself by grating his own
heart to say the truth.
• To recapture with any accurate impressions and
emotion of the distant path with entire freedom.
• Great care has to be taken in making any comments
on people who may be alive when the book appears.
• The Author was bound to omit the details of daily life
that are common to everyone, and must concentrate
on what was striking or exceptional
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20. Chief Characteristics
• The truth should be the hallmark of an
autobiography. Facts should not be perused.
• Courage and frankness are the essential
virtues of a good writer of autobiography. The
writer should not be secretive.
• The author should be objective in dealing with
contemporary events and personalities.
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21. Chief Characteristics
• The author should not be verbose in his
description or narration.
• Self-consciousness is the very essence of an
autobiography. A natural facility of expression
and flashes of humour and wit are essential
attributes of an autobiography.
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