Autobiography – Literary Terms

 

Autobiography, Literary Terms

Autobiography – Literary Terms

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Autobiography:

An account of all or a part of a person's life written by that person, usually with publication in mind. Typically, an autobiography takes the form of a continuous NARRATIVE of significant events, in which memory and introspection and even IMAGINATION are blended. The Confessions of St. Augustine, for example, considered the first real autobiography, presents the events of Augustine's early life as a spiritual journey and as an opportunity for self-analysis.

Although often unreliable as a record of facts, an autobiography offers unique insight into its author's personality, attitudes, and impressions. Many of the greatest autobiographies--the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1562), Margaret Cavendish's True Relation of My Birth, Breeding and Life (1656), Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (1766), Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions (1781, 1788), and Henry Adams's The Education of Henry Adams (1906)--also offer insight into the times in which their author-subjects lived.

Diaries, JOURNALS, and letters are autobiographical writings, but they differ from an autobiography in not being continuous narratives. A memoir differs from an autobiography in that it tends to focus on a single period in the writer's life-often a time that coincides with important events--and on notable people known to the writer. An example is Lillian Hellman's Pentimento (1973).

See also:

BIOGRAPHY.