Biography is a book or text that tells the story of a certain person's life.. It is a description of the particular facts of someone's life. It contains important data and events, it may or may not have photos, or interviews with people close to the character.
The Biography is built with accurate data, including names, locations and dates of major important events.
The main biography features they are:
- They can be in short or long texts, like big books;
- It has a journalistic, investigative, chronological and organized structure;
- It is a type of text that seeks to get as close to the reality of the subject;
- It is considered a non-fiction literary genre;
- It is written in third person;
- It is a narrative text;
THE basic structure of a biography usually includes:
- initial presentation of the protagonist (introduction);
- the description of the main facts that make up the story (development);
- a final part of a subjective character (conclusion).
In general, biographies are made of public figures and recognized worldwide, such as politicians, writers, scientists, sportsmen, artists, or people who have made an important contribution to the world.
Biography began to be used more by 20th century historians, and later journalists made it more accessible through biography books of famous people in Pop Culture.
Types of biography
Autobiography
It is narrated in the first person, that is, the biographee himself (the main character of the biography) writes about his story.
In this case, the style is more subjective and opinionated. The person writes about their life with their own vision and opinion about their history.
Autobiography Examples: the autobiography of Agatha Christie and Nelson Mandela.
Authorized Biography
To write the authorized biography, the author, who will narrate the story of another person, has the consent of that person or of their relatives (if they have already died) to write.
In this type of biography, the author has access to more truthful sources and a greater amount of documents and data about the real history of the subject.
Examples of Authorized Biographya: biography of Steve Jobs and Edir Macedo.
Unauthorized Biography
In this type of biography, the author does not have the consent of the subject or his family, and even so he writes about this person's story.
One of the important points in this type of biography is that the author has more autonomy in his research and writing, as there are no parts of the story that the character hides and does not let them be published.
However, in this case, the author may have difficulty accessing information or documents that are very personal to the subject, such as: diaries, photographs, interviews with family members, among others.
Sample Unauthorized Biography: biography of former player Garrincha.