Biography as a cultural discipline

Mano Daniel

pp. 297-317

in: Mano Daniel, Lester Embree (eds), Phenomenology of the cultural disciplines, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

The biographical subject is the cultural object par excellence. By examining how biographers go about the task of studying and assembling their biographical texts, we will acquire a better appreciation of the nature of cultural objects and the appropriate philosophical and methodological strategies that facilitate the description and explanation of such objects. I begin by reflecting upon the practice of biographical writing in order to illuminate and explicate some of the salient features and theoretical concerns of biographical writing as experienced by practicing biographers. I then canvass and discuss ways in which biographies play relevant methodological and cultural roles.