The truth in biographies and journals

• Autor(a) principal: Calligaris, Contardo
• Data de Publicação: 1998
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Históricos (Rio de Janeiro)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/reh/article/view/2071
• topic: Subjetividade

This paper focuses on the special place of autobiographies in the cultural context of Western modernity, where the high praise of subjectivity led individual sincerety to overthrow factual truth as an independent and superior value. Though autobiography, and even biography, have become a genre only at the end of 18th century, when the experience of individual life began to be organized in an autonomous narration, independently from the community destiny, it may be interesting to detect in the modern autobiographical project something wider than the narrative form it has assumed. This would allow us to consider the relativity of historical landmarks traditionally linked to the rise of autobiography and would enhance our perception of the forms modern individual chose to express himself. A history of these forms would allow to reconstruct the history of modern subjectivity itself, in the sense of the adventure of man learning to express himself and thus learning to give himself meaning.