Mapping Lives: The Uses of Biography [Paperback]

Why biography? This collection of essays on the problems and functions of biography, and particularly the biography of writers, thinkers and artists, investigates a subject of enduring importance for those interested in culture and society.Why biography? This collection of essays on the problems and functions of biography, and particularly the biography of writers, thinkers and artists, investigates a subject of enduring importance for those interested in culture and society. In the last century, it has been a controversial subject, as old models of biographical writing were attacked and superseded, while critics and theorists questioned the once self-evident value of the biography of writers. Yet the genre continues to attract notable authors and is unfailingly popular with readers.

The present volume, while containing essays by practicing biographers, is intended primarily as a stimulus to critical thinking. It focuses on the diverse functions assumed by life-writing in different European countries at different periods, challenging both the notion of a genre with constant characteristics and aims and the view of modern biography as the happy culmination of centuries of progress. Absorbing and infomativeMapping Livesvaluably provides accounts of the genre's development in a range of cultural contexts. --Times Literary Supplement

An impressive collection of essays about the craft of biography. --The Economist

It is one of the best contributions to the life-writing critical industry of the last decade. --Modern Language Review

Why biography? This collection investigates a subject of enduring importance