Lives and biographies. The poetics of literary biography in the 18th century
Abstract
This article explores the modernization of literary biography, focusing on how writers’ lives were portrayed. To understand this transformation, I compare the views on biography and poets’ lives in the works of Juan José López de Sedano (1729–1801) and Samuel Johnson (1709–1784). The analysis of their texts reveals significant shifts in the purpose and structure of literary biography. While some changes are similar in both cases, others differ, but they can be grouped into three key areas: the integration of poets' lives into literary historiography, the adaptation of biography to scholarly principles, and the rise of biographical criticism. However, both authors’ works also show that many traditional forms and approaches to biography remained in use well into the 18th century, highlighting that the modernization of literary biography was a slow and gradual process.
Keywords
Literary biography, literary historiography, biographical criticism, Juan José López de Sedano, Samuel JohnsonReferences
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