
Contents
Cite
Abstract
Lytton Strachey in 1918 suggested that English biography had found its true calling as the most delicate and humane of all the branches of the art of writing. Three generations later, the form has expanded, gained a new broad readership, and achieved intellectual authority. Biography has been called the ‘true art of writing’ and a humanist discipline. It has been hailed as the proper study of mankind. While biography was becoming a recognized art of writing, its value and nature remained a contested issue. In the early days, a biography was primarily a maverick and unacademic form of writing. Academia too was not keen to recognize biography, particularly as a literary genre. It has constantly assaulted the form of biography as trivial, exploitative, fictive, and a corrupter of pure texts and of scholarly morals. And more importantly, a biography was deemed as devoid of serious poetics, post-Aristotelian regulations, and subjective. This chapter examines whether biography is an art and discipline that can be taught and evaluates whether life-writing can be a proper subject for an academic course. It examines the possible contents, aims, and benefits if biography was to be considered as a university subject, including the grounds that would claim biography as a genuine humanist discipline.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 2 |
January 2023 | 3 |
February 2023 | 8 |
March 2023 | 2 |
May 2023 | 9 |
August 2023 | 2 |
September 2023 | 43 |
October 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 2 |
December 2023 | 1 |
January 2024 | 1 |
February 2024 | 4 |
April 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 1 |
June 2024 | 4 |
July 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 3 |
September 2024 | 4 |
October 2024 | 13 |
January 2025 | 3 |
February 2025 | 6 |
May 2025 | 1 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.