WHAT IS A BIOGRAPHICAL TEXT? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

A biographical text consists of a narrative that deals with the life of another person. According to the classifications of textual typologies and, in strictly formal terms, it is a text with an informative function and a narrative plot.

That is to say that, in this type of texts, the author's intention is to inform and the way in which he presents the contents through a narrative.

However, the uses of biographical texts sometimes overlap other functions and plots according to the genres to which it is applied, as explained below.

Biographical texts in journalistic genres

This type of text consists of adaptations of the literary genre to which some of the characteristics of the journalistic genre are added.

They deal with a person who is usually current, contemporary and describe his life and the most outstanding aspects of his personality. Usually, they use narration, description and dialogue as resources.

Among the journalistic formulas that use biographical texts, the profile, the sketch and the biographical note are distinguished. The first is used mainly in magazines and is a life story of the person.

The sketch does not go as deep as the profile, it is usually a brief account of the life of the individual and is used mainly in the newspapers.

The biographical note is an incomplete biography that highlights only the most important features of the person and is longer than the previous ones.

Biographical texts in social science research

In the social sciences, especially in anthropology, sociology, psychology and social pedagogy and, lately, also in medicine, biographical texts are constructed as instruments for the analysis of qualitative research.

They are part of and are the result of a research process whose purposes are to study subjective views regarding certain phenomena that can show development perspectives within a historical context.

In this type of text, documentary elements - both personal and social - are combined to shed light on a social reality through a personal truth.

With biographical texts an attempt is made to contextualize personal experiences within a specific context from which broader social and cultural profiles can be configured.

Biographical texts in literature

These texts are on the line that divides fiction from history, and they take something of both. In other words, they are, at the same time, document and art.

The biography, even when it deals with the description and the account of private lives, always illuminates a historical period and its social conditions.

Therefore, in this context, biographical texts cannot be considered solely as a mere information resource, but rather add literary aesthetics - the form of fictionalized fiction or the story of travel and adventure - to the structure of the biographical text.

These texts are halfway between the imaginary and fabulous, and the real.

References

1. LAMAS, Ó. L. (2003). Introduction to the textual typology. Arch Books.
2. Cf. ROSENDO, B., "The profile as a journalistic genre", Comunicación y Sociedad, vol. X, No. 1, 1997, pp. 95-115.
3. HARRIS, Geoffrey, Practical Newspaper Reporting, Heinemann, London, 1966, p. 313.
4. CHAMBERLAYNE, P., BORNAT, J., & WENGRAF, T. (Eds.). (2000). The turn to biographical methods in social science: Comparative issues and examples. Psychology Press.
5. SCHAEFFER, JM (1983). Du texte au genre. Notes sur la problématique générique. Poetic. Revue de Théorie et d'Analyse Littéraires Paris, (53), 3-18.