Biography: Biography

The biography is a type of text that refers to a specific person, it is made by the person himself or by a third person.

In these texts or stories the steps and achievements of an individual are expressed, from his birth or youth to his adulthood or death, its handling is basically chronological and to have the characteristic of being a biography, it requires a certain degree of veracity.

The biography tells the story and reflects the life of the biographer in the environment in which it all takes place. The biographer has to be a bit of a journalist, psychologist and sociologist, more than a writer, which means being objective and sincere.

You should present the character without disfiguring retouching, as it is, and not exaggerated praise of him. The reader should appreciate the biographer for what he is in himself and for his actions, not for what his biographer comments about him.

This literary genre was masterfully developed by writers such as:

• Plutarch
• Emil ludwig
• Stefan zweig
• André Maurois
• Romain Rolland and
• Gregorio Marañón.

In this sense, today there are authors who continue with the steps and processes already mentioned from which the biographical and autobiographical literature of the present time emerges.

Biography example:

Exemplary lives

BEETHOVEN:

"Ludwig-van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, in Boon, near Cologne, in a squalid garret of a poor house. He was flamenco by origin; his father, a drunken and talentless tenor; his mother, a maid, daughter of a cook and widow in the first nuptials of a valet.

His severe childhood did not have the familiar sweetness that Mozart's, happier, was surrounded by. From the beginning, his life was revealed to her as a sad and brutal combat; his father wanted to exploit his musical dispositions and display him as a child prodigy; at four years of age he would sit him, for hours on end, in front of his harpsichord, or he would lock him up with a violin and overwhelm him with work. It was not long before art would have made him hateful forever.

It was necessary to use violence for Beethoven to learn music. His youth was saddened by material concerns, care to earn a living, premature jobs; at the age of eleven, he was part of the theater orchestra, and at thirteen, he was an organist. "(Cf. Complementary bibliography, N "49)

Romain rolland

Three titans

MIGUEL ANGEL:

"What was the idea of ​​the thirteen-year-old boy - what was the idea of ​​Miguel Ángel - of wanting to study to be a painter? The obstinate boy used to contemplate with serious eyes what he had in front of him and scribble on the thin paper an image or what seemed such to him. Not only his father, but also the brothers were angry, because the painter was a poor job, inglorious, and the boy received so many blows that, now old, still remembered it. There was no mother at home to protect him, men ruled the sad place. Since that son, it seemed, was good for nothing else, what was left for the father but to give in? So he took him to the master Ghirlandaio, who painted the walls in Santa Maria Novella, surrounded by disciples and assistants. The apprenticeship was set at three years; In a bad mood the father sacrificed money, as well as the hope that his second son would become something. Well, how can we believe that he would ever catch up with his teacher or the great Donatello? "(Cf. Complementary bibliography, No 32)

Emil ludwig