Biographers’ theories

This article aims to conduct a comparative study among seven professional biographers who wrote theoretical books about their practices in relation to the theme of biography. We chose for analysis seven books that addressed the epistemological, methodological and aesthetic issues of biographical writing in order to try to understand how they presented such issues. The seven biographers studied were: André Maurois, Leon Edel, François Dosse, Manuel Alberca, Anna Caballé, Ruy Castro and Lira Neto. Our analysis methodology was comparative, seeking to identify similarities and differences or divergences and convergences. Our conclusions lead us to understand biography as a transdisciplinary field and a comprehensive approach to the other and a critical means of transmitting knowledge about an individual in their public and private sphere.

Keywords:
biography; theory; methodology; aesthetics; literature