Biography in post-apartheid South Africa

A call for awkwardness

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2137889
AutoresN J Jacobs (0000-0002-0348-8836, John Brown University, autor de correspondencia), Leslie Bank (0000-0002-8506-7401, University of the Western Cape), Andrew Bank (University of the Western Cape)
Año2019
Volumen78
Número2
Páginas165-182
Fecha de publicación2019-04-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAfrican Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-0184 • E-ISSN: 1469-2872
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00020184.2019.1569428
OpenAlexW2921894995
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas45

Biography (with autobiography) has become the most popular type of non-fiction in South Africa, but the recent expansion of works has not inspired commentary. Here we describe four 'constellations' of biographies: political biographies of the individual-as-leader; social history biographies of the individual-as-exemplar; literary biographies of the individual-as-vessel-of-self; and critical studies biographies of the individual-as-fragmented-subject. Reviewing the politics of biography in South Africa and the nature of the project, we conclude that biography is an inescapably awkward enterprise, because of the intimate and fraught politics between author and subject, author and sources about the subject's internal life, and author and audiences. Together with the authors in this Special Issue, we hold that it is generative to face the inevitable difficulties of biography and that it is not a failing to expose them to view

Art · Art history · Biography · Face (sociological concept · Literature · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Computer Science · History · Law · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · South African History and Culture