Interdisciplinary Approach to Metabiography in the Context of Modernism and Postmodernism

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26580058
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Shinshu University
• Principal Investigator: HOSHI Kumiko 信州大学, 人文学部, 特任准教授 (20572142)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: メタバイオグラフィー / モダニズム / ポストモダニズム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study explored how metabiography differed from traditional biography to establish it as a new interdisciplinary genre. Through this study, it has been made clear that there exist two types of metabiography, that is, “biography ABOUT biography” and “biography BEYOND biography.” The first type of metabiography is represented by Nicolaas A. Rupke’s Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography (2008). The origin of the second type of metabiography dates back to early 20th century modernist period, when Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians (1918) and Virginia Woolf’s two biographies Orlando (1928) and Flush (1933) were published. Their unique biographical writing not only influenced other biographers such as A. J. A. Symons and Geoff Dyer, but also inspired postmodern writers such as Julian Barnes and A. S. Byatt.

Free Research Field

英文学