Political Science

Abstract

Auto/biography ('Auto/biography' is the term used throughout this entry when referring to both autobiography and biography). is a form of 'life-writing' that fits the broad rubric of the "biographical method" (Roberts 2002, X). While biography's focus is on the subject/object (with the subject usually dead) and the author able to select, sometimes controversially, what to include or ignore; autobiography uses memory as its primary material (Smith and Watson 2010, 22), with autobiographers able to self-select what aspects of their life to focus on. Despite these limitations the auto/biographical genre contributes to a body of knowledge that is informed by history, anthropology and sociology. Its key focus is based upon understanding the "other' (Vidich and Lyman 2000, 38). Life writing with a specific focus, e.g. politics, is termed "special purpose biography" (Brewer 2001, 723). Biography is one of the oldest forms of political writing. Plutarch's Βίοι Παράλληλοι [Parallel Lives] about Ancient Greek and Roman leaders, is the first in a long line of biographies documenting the lives of "great men" (Brewer 2001, 721). It took many more centuries before the writings of "great women" appeared (e.g. Eleanor Roosevelt's Autobiography [1992]; Margaret Thatcher's The Downing Street Years [1993]). The writings of post-colonial leaders such as India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah extends the genre further to include issues of race and class (Brewer 2001, 721).