Biography biography
Try the literature selection service. You can always turn off the advertisement. Sharpe, S. Abstract of the collection was made up of a conference of a conference held in the city of English, literature and dramatic art and the center for processing biographies and letters at the University of London. Among the authors are not only professional biographers and historians, but also literary critics and culturalists.
The collection opens up an extensive introduction, a kind of programmatic article of the initiators of this project and specialists in the early new time K. Sharp and S. Tsvicker suggested “studying the diversity and connection of all forms of biography of the early new time” p. Medieval biographies, unlike biographies, set the goal of depicting life as a sample, an example to follow.
We are talking about the so -called "Exampla", the legacy of ancient and medieval hagiography. The biographies of representatives of the scientific class, saints and outstanding citizens were used as teaching texts, advice and leadership, an example for mind and spirit. These works were more than a didactic text or ethical example, they played an important ideological and political role, they say K.
Biographies were created for practical purposes, which distinguishes them from biographies of subsequent eras. From the New Age, a biography is a narrative about the individual and his spiritual world both in form and in the subject of research. Zvicker believes that to update our ideas about the biography of the early New Age, attention should be paid to some aspects.
Studying the inner life of a person, one should consider not only spiritual, but also affective, sexual and psychological. Sex and sexuality occupy an important place in biographies and not only for commercial reasons. In the postframed era, it cannot be otherwise: everyone who read Z. Freud is aware of sexuality as a defining condition for the formation of their own “I”. Modern historians emphasize that when studying the early new time, more attention should be paid to idioms associated with sexuality and various bodily manifestations.
In the middle of the XVII century. The theme of sexuality K. Zvicker is associated with the General Direction in History. In this case, the following questions arise: what is the peculiarity of the life of a woman in the early new time? How were the stories of women represented and written? How can modern scientists learn about these stories? Samples of female virtues were rarely described and were limited to personal piety and economicity, silence and innocence.
Historians restore circumstances 1 medieval genre with a pronounced didactic function, the heroes of which acted as an example to follow. We know little about female life outside the family and at home. But there were women engaged in professional activities or craft. Even in the biographies of women -monarchs, women - religious and civilian leaders there are unexplored moments, K.
write the next important element of biography - childhood. In modern times, the attitude towards childhood changed, his role was revised in the formation and formation of personality. Humanistic pedagogy was aimed not only at training, but also at the definition of spiritual, moral and civilian aspects of life ”p. Religion and religious life in its various manifestations are another aspect that has an impact on the biography.
In addition to the spiritual context of religious life, one should remember its secular state manifestation. We are talking about the biographies and stories of the monarchs, which were simultaneously the heads of the state and the church. Zwicker refers to the work of E. Kantorovich about the “two bodies” of the king1. The monarchs attracted attention to themselves, their material and intangible bodies in official performances, poems, images and prayers.
Therefore, the authors believe, we can re -comprehend these works as texts of intensive personal spirituality, psychology of complexes and broken individuality. In the conclusion of K. Zvicker, they write that in the new time the content of the biography has changed. If medieval biographies were samples of “instructiveness”, then in modern times, life itself became the center of the biography.
The biography ceased to be only a literary genre, its “one can imagine in this study on“ medieval political theology ”E. Kantorovich writes that the medieval kings possessed two bodies - the“ body of natural ”as a person and the“ body of political ”as a representative of the highest power. For more details see: Luchitskaya S. Two bodies of the king. Foreign research in reviews and essays.
The first part of the book, “Life and Borders”, consists of two materials. In the small article “Biography and Modernity: some thoughts of origin” S. Tillar, invited senior researcher at the Center for Lands of Landonon University of the University of Great Britain, reflects on the influence of religion, Catholicism and Protestantism on the nature of people, ways of manifesting emotions, attitude to death, and public understanding.For comparison, the historian takes England and Italy.
In her opinion, it was the differences in the worldview and traditions that influenced the nature and structure of biographical research. In Protestant culture, S. Tillar states, the private life of men and women is manifested through their social affairs, thereby the creation of narratives about moral changes and the right lives. The British biographical tradition arose on the basis of such edifying stories, in which not only saints, but also robbers, pirates and courtesans appeared.
All these narratives associated with the concept of character developed in England by the end of the 16th century. In the play of W. Shakespeare “Henry IV”, the idea is made that the origin of a person and his real nature, in this case, Prince of Wales, find themselves in his actions because they show a hidden truth about a person. Similar ideas are far from Catholic culture, notes S.
since the end of the XVII century. The significance of the initial life experience in the formation and development of the personality was subsequently confirmed by Z. Freud, S. in the opinion of the author emphasizes, the biography became an independent and recognizable genre, turning to new historical actors, that is, to those who formed social changes, urban and imperial life, in other words, modernity.
After all, modernity was primarily and is the state of mind, and not something else.
Perhaps therefore, the biography began to separate from history: although the latter has an allegorical force, it is not intended to describe the present. A great interest in the history of the life of a recently deceased or still living person suggests that it is perceived as a kind of reflection of modernity, S. believes S. The modernity that these biographies described was determined, firstly, by a sense of alienation, isolation of a person, and secondly, the belief that this isolation is inherent in urban life and, above all, London, in which a tenth of the entire population of the country lived.
The new form of fixing human lives - biography - summarized and described a new lifestyle. The article by L. Zhadin, an intellectual history of the Renaissance “Non -standard life: not a biography of the Constantine Heigens” tells about the famous Dutch diplomat, writer and politics, K. Zhagens writes that the life of K. Hegens can be considered as a subject of cultural history, because he had really outstanding abilities and was an amazingly versatile person.
Sir Constant and Heyns was not only a diplomat, but also a musician who played on many instruments recognized as a poet who wrote poetry in five languages. The English king invited him to participate in the development of the inscription project for the memorial in memory of the salvation of London from the fire of G. Already in his youth, K. Heyns had an informal relationship with the English royal family.
From his epistolary heritage, it is clear that he took an active part in the development of Anglonierland relations, contributed to the establishment of close personal ties between the surroundings of Wilhelm of Orange and the House of the Stuarts. His diplomatic efforts were highly appreciated by the British monarchs, K. Heyns was awarded the knightly rank. We are talking about a man of two nations, geographically divided by the strait, which had a certain authority in political and cultural affairs.
In his homeland, K. Heigens enjoyed fame not only as a diplomat, but also as a cultural expert of the royal house. He was an indisputable arbiter of good taste in all areas, from music to poetry, from painting to architecture. Sir K. Heyns is an example of a person whose biography goes beyond the borders of national borders. We can say that he had two separate lives, depending on which side of the English or European strait to look at him.
His life is inextricably linked with extremely important cultural and political events. This is a whole story about the achievements of several nations, connected together with difficulty bonds. Therefore, in order to describe this outstanding person of European culture, it is necessary to abandon traditional historical or literary approaches and use new strategies, contains L.
in the second part of the book, “Literature and Life”, the authors analyze such sources of biographical research as memoirs, gossip, literary works. Hedfield, Professor of the University of Sussex Britain, writes that there are few direct documentary evidence of the life of E. Spencer, there is only indirect information. For example, letters written by him while working in the civil service in Ireland, various official documents and publications.
It is also known when and where E. Spencer went to school, and then to the university, as his wife and children called, he is a little known about his property, about the trials in which he took part. It is known where, but it is not known how he died.