Towards a Poetics of Literary Biography

Michael Benton is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southampton, UK. His publications include Teaching Literature 9 – 14 (with Geoff Fox) and several anthologies of poetry, notably Touchstones (with Peter Benton). His most recent books are Studies in the Spectator Role: Literature, Painting & Pedagogy (2000) and Literary Biography: An Introduction (2009).

"Biography is a hybrid form that as a narrative resembles the novel, and as a factual record resembles history. ... The strongest sections of the book are devoted to case studies of biographers like Michael Holroyd and Richard Holmes, and to the nature of biography as it has evolved in generations of biographers working on Jane Austen and George Eliot. ... Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." (C. Rollyson, Choice, Vol. 53 (10), June, 2016) "A polished and focused piece of work, which will make a significant contribution to the literature on life-writing, and in particular biographical writing. The author is at all times judicious and informed in his discussions of both the biographies and of the writers they explore. The writing is lucid and insightful." - Laura Marcus, Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford, UK

• Preface Introduction: Lives Without Theory 1. Art & Artifice in Biography 2. Plotting A Life 3. The Author's Works (1): Signs of Life? 4. The Author's Works (2): Open to Criticism? 5. Their Times and Ours 6. Framing a Poetics of Literary Biography Notes and References Select Bibliography Index