Current biography definition and examples
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A good biography delves into the subject’s personality, motivations, relationships, and the impact they had on the world. What emotions or associations does it evoke?
Recognizing and analyzing allusions is a key skill for any reader or writer. Understanding these will help you both recognize and create them.
Exaggeration
This is the cornerstone of caricature.
It’s about focusing on what makes someone recognizable and then amplifying those characteristics.
For example, imagine a character known for their stinginess. Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples
Biography Definition
A biography (BYE-og-ruh-fee) is a written account of one person’s life authored by another person.
We understand that he’s wealthy, perhaps superficial, and likely yearning for a lost love or a sense of fulfillment. While frequently associated with visual art, think of political cartoons, it’s equally potent when employed in writing. This is done for entertainment and to build the story so it fits the filmmaker’s vision or evolves into a longer form, such as a multi-season television show.
It’s not a direct explanation; the writer assumes you’ll recognize the reference and draw your own connections. They are a way to introduce readers to the work’s subject—the historical details, the subject’s motivations and psychological underpinnings, and their environment and the impact they had, both in the short and long term.
Because the author is somewhat removed from their subject, they can offer a more omniscient, third-person narrative account.
This focuses attention on the most prominent or defining features. Bertie Wooster is a wealthy, clueless, and perpetually bewildered aristocrat, while Jeeves is his impeccably mannered and extraordinarily intelligent valet. P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories rely heavily on caricatures. Biographies are popular source materials for documentaries, television shows, and motion pictures.
The History of Biographies
The biography form has its roots in Ancient Rome and Greece.
The allusion tells us that the woman’s voice is dangerously attractive and that those who listen to it may face negative consequences. A biography of Anne Frank, on the other hand, would be written by someone else, drawing on her diary, letters, and other sources.
Memoir
A memoir focuses on a specific period, theme, or event in a person’s life, rather than attempting a comprehensive account.
A caricature might depict them counting every penny, refusing to buy anything that isn’t on sale, and becoming visibly distressed at even small expenditures. A biography includes all pertinent details from the subject’s life, typically arranged in a chronological order. While both genres deal with real lives, the perspective and voice are fundamentally different.
In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the portrayal of the Duke and the King is a masterful example of caricature.