Life-Writing Biography Monographs Published for the Biographical Research Center by the University of Hawai’I Press
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Life-Writing Biography Monographs published for the Biographical Research Center by the University of Hawai’i Press Life- Writing: A Glossary of Terms in Biography, Autobiography, and Related Forms, by Donald J. Winslow, 1980. 2nd ed. 1995. New Directions in Biography: Essays by Phyllis Auty, Leon Edel, Michael Holroyd, Noel C. Manganyi, Gabriel Merle, Margot Peters, and Shoichi Saeki, edited and with a Foreword by Anthony M. Friedson. 1981. Essaying Biography: A Celebration for Leon Edel, edited by Gloria G. Fromm. 1986. The Autobiographical Writings of Lewis Mumford:A Study in Literary Audacity, by Frank G. Novak, Jr. 1988. Called from Within: Early Women Lawyers of Hawai’i, edited by Man Matsuda. 1992. A Man Must Stand Up.’ The Autobiography of a Gentle Activist, by John E, Reinecke, edited by Mice M. Beechert and Edward D. Beechert. 1993. The Center for Biographical Research (CBR) of the University of Hawai’i is designed to facilitate and encourage the study of life-writing. Founded in 1976, CBR sponsors research, publication, teaching, and service for the pan-cultural study of biography. In addition to the scholarly journal Biography:An Interdisctplinary Quarterly, published continuously since 1978, the Center produces a series of book-length monographs on topics in life- writing. In conjunction with the University’s Liberal Studies program, CBR offers an undergraduate interdisciplinary major in biography, and in con junction with the English Department, graduate programs leading to MA. and Ph.D. degrees with a specialization in biography. Since 1988 the Center has hosted a weekly seminar, “Brown Bag Biography,” featuring discussions of biography for town and gown, and has sponsored international confer ences in biography in Kyoto and Chiangmai, as well as Honolulu. For fur ther information about the programs or activities of the Center, please con tact the: Center for Biographical Research; University of Hawai’i at Manoa; 1777 East-West Road, Cottage 96-36; Honolulu, Hawai’i 96822; telephone and fax: (808) 956-3774; email: [email protected]. Life-Writing A GLOSSARY OF TERMS IN BIOGRAPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AND RELATED FORMS Second Edition Donald J. Winslow A Biography Monograph Published for the Biographical Research Center by University of Hawai ‘i Press © 1980, 1995 by Donald. J. Winalow All rights reserved First edition published in 1980. Second edition 1995 Printed in the United States of America 95 96 97 98 99 00 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Winslow, DonaldJ., 1911— Life-writing : a glossary of terms in biography, autobiography, — and related forms / Donald J. Winslow. 2nd ed. p. cm. — (A biography monograph) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0—8248—1713—3 1. Biography as a literary form—Dictionaries. 2. Autobiography—Dictionaries. I. Tide II. Series. CT21.W56 1995 808’.06692—dc2O 94—40735 CIP University of Hawai’i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources About the Author DONALD I. WINSLOW is Professor Emeritus of English at Boston University, where he taught for forty-one years, ten of them as Chair of the English Department. In addition to many years of teaching courses on biography, he has specialized in eighteenth-century liter ature. His many articles in the Thomas Hardy Journal include a num ber on Hardy iconography, with special concern for Hardy’s relationships to the artists who painted his portrait. He has also pub lished Lasell: A History of fhe Firsf Junior College for Women (1987), now a four-year college, an institution with which Professor Winslow has had a lifetime association. Contents Preface to the Second Edition vii Preface ix Glossary 1 Books on Life-Writing 69 V Preface to the Second Edition THE PRESENT REVISED edition of the Glossary alters or adds to a number of the earlier definitions while including more than one hun dred new terms. In the fourteen years since publication of the first edition, the field of life-writing has expanded at a rapid rate. The multiplication of new books and articles on biography and autobiog raphy has meant an expanded bibliography. Fortunately, the publica tion of the journal Biography has provided a major source for ever- new investigations into innumerable aspects of life-writing, including extensive bibliographical listings. New books on theory and criticism, especially in autobiography, have led to the introduction of new terms, some of which are of real value, while some add to the jar gonizing of the language. I do not avoid neologisms, but here at least I do not encourage the use of jargon. I have continued to resist the temptation to include terms relating to the professions of subjects of biographies. One could easily add scores of categories of this type, beginning with architects, book sellers, and composers, but those subjects deserve much more than dictionary entries; they need articles, even books, dealing with the special problems and characteristics for each type. I try to confine myself to terms concerned with literary genres and with the general human condition. I reiterate my gratitude to the University of Hawai’i Press and the University of Hawai’i Center for Biographical Research and its direc tor, George Simson. I owe special thanks to Ira B. Nadel for his help fill suggestions and close reading of the entire text. Auburndale, Massachusetts, 1994 vii Preface THERE HAS LONG been need for a reference list of terms that are used in connection with biography, autobiography, and other branches of life-writing. Since this glossary was gathered over a peri od of many years during which I was teaching courses in biography at Boston University, the bias of the collection is British and American. Other languages and cultures await other collectors of lists of terms and definitions. Any glossary such as this is easily extendable, and one has to make certain limitations within reason. It would be pleasant to include, for example, all the various double terms for the many different profes sions as subjects of biography, like “merchant lives” or “artists’ lives,” but such terms are clearly evident in meaning. One could write an essay on such topics as “ecclesiastical lives” (of which there are prob ably more than of any other profession) or “medical lives” (an espe cially interesting group since the seventeenth century), but these sub jects need considerably more than definition. Some large terms are included here, such as “history” or “narrative,” but they are defined or discussed only in relation to the basic subject of the collection: life-writing. Many different sources have been used, but the main definitions are from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). I have used other dic tionaries and also books and articles from recent times that define and discuss many of these terms. At the end of the book is a select ed bibliography of books on life-writing, mainly general studies, although some concentrate on specific writers who are representa tive. Although most of the books listed are from the contemporary period, some of the very earliest studies in biography are included, partly to indicate something of the progress that has been made over the last century in dealing with theories and practices of biography and autobiography. The bibliography might have been greatly extended by including such works as dictionaries of lives or antholo x x Preface gies of passages from lives, but one must draw lines of limitation somewhere. The journal Biography, in which this glossary was origi nally published, has in its last number each year a bibliography of current books and articles on life-writing. In selecting terms for a list such as this, one is sometimes faced with the problem of deciding whether or not to include a term that is highly idiosyncratic. Daily journalism often provides new words or phrases in order to vivify an account of some biographer or his work. Book reviewers attempt originality in their metaphors, sometimes hitting—often missing—the mark. Many terms have been used so widely and for so long that they are no longer really metaphori cal (they are “faded metaphors” at best), like “profile” or “sketch,” but still they are effective designations of literary types. These and other metaphors for life-writing understandably come from the field of painting portraits (“silhouette,” “vignette”), yet there is one apt metaphorical analogy that has only occasionally been used: mosaic. One can see how the little hard pieces of fact (the tesserae) have to be fitted together to make a complete picture of the person. Selection is such an inevitable part of all biography and autobio graphy that the parallel of the life-writer to the artist in mosaic stresses the importance of choice and arrangement, of pattern and design. Some concepts associated with life-writing, though influential and popular at one historical period or another (astrology, humors, phrenology, biorhythm), go in or out of fashion or pass away, having been attempts to understand basic human nature and to apply theo retical principles to specific individuals. Obviously in the twentieth century the field of psychology (Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian, Eriksonian, or whatever) has brought in many terms—some now entirely familiar, others still coming in. Not unexpectedly, there are controversies not only on the specific meanings of these new terms but also on the very basic concepts out of which they continue to grow. If autobiography is the major subject of discussion in books and articles in the last generation, perhaps the next most frequent topic is the fact-fiction interfusion. Ever since the eighteenth century the relationship between the novel and biography has been intimate and complex; many recent scholarly studies have dealt with these interre lationships, often when the subject is a specific author.