What is an autobiography?
A wide variety of autobiographical works have enjoyed great popularity for years. This applies to the larger public in the same way as it does to scientific readers. What exactly is an autobiography?
The word autobiography comes from the Greek. So "autos" means itself, "bios" means life and "graphein" means writing. Translated into German, this becomes the literary representation of one's own life or life.
Autobiography - characteristics
- Put simply, an autobiography is about Story of your own life. The content of the work is the same, even with the involvement of a co-writer or ghostwriter, as written by oneself. The story is told from the author's point of view. In contrast to the biography, an autobiography is written by yourself.
- The biography or memoirs have an essential difference to memoirs. Because external events are often in the foreground here. A purely autobiographical description is aimed at looking back on one's life. Success with readers depends on how sincere, credible, and self-critical an author can be.
Autobiographical works - classification
It's a fact that readers are drawn into autobiographies, which is certainly the case Wide range is owed when considering the autobiographical works as a literary genre considered. Globally, they can be divided into three groups.
- A first group includes popularly written, possibly ghostwritten, works in the broad field of entertainment. Autobiographies of well-known musicians, actors and athletes are typical examples. You deliver a presentation for self-expression.
- Second, from a literary point of view, there are less significant life accounts of historical figures. It is often politicians who try to describe and justify their own decisions.
- A third group consists of thoroughly innovative texts that are also of high literary quality. They are aimed directly at the reader with an interest in literature. The authors are well-known writers of novels, short stories or plays.
The terms biography and autobiography harbor a small but meaningful...
Fact and fiction are usually very close together. This is particularly the case in works that can only be granted autobiographical traits. The boundaries between the other genres (literary diary, autobiographical novel) are fluid.
