Biography and autobiography

As biographical and autobiographical prose developed over the course of the seventeenth century, it became less about exemplarity-the traditional motive and theme associated with these genres-and more about defending or justifying a life. This chapter first surveys the primary categories of biographical and autobiographical prose (profession-based memoir, the funeral-sermon biography, prison narrative, family memoir, occasional meditations, etc.) produced in England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1640-1714 and then focuses on a few key examples that best demonstrate some of the broader trends. The chapter highlights key shared features of these texts, including numerous rhetorical techniques, a tendency toward genetic hybridity, and-perhaps most importantly-the urgent and often-didactic tone required of the tumultuous period in which the life-writers lived that best allow us to understand the important work that seventeenth-century autobiography and biography performed.