Biography in post-apartheid South Africa: A call for awkwardness

• Published in: African studies (Johannesburg) Vol. 78; no. 2; pp. 165 - 182
• Main Authors: Jacobs, Nancy J., Bank, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Ltd 03-04-2019
• Subjects: Apartheid; Biographies; Critical theory; Fiction; Leadership; Literature; Nonfiction; Politics; Social history; Trends; South Africa
• ISSN: 0002-0184; 1469-2872
• DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2019.1569428

Biography (with autobiography) has become the most popular type of non-fiction in South Africa, but the recent expansion of works has not inspired commentary. Here we describe four 'constellations' of biographies: political biographies of the individual-as-leader; social history biographies of the individual-as-exemplar; literary biographies of the individual-as-vessel-of-self; and critical studies biographies of the individual-as-fragmented-subject. Reviewing the politics of biography in South Africa and the nature of the project, we conclude that biography is an inescapably awkward enterprise, because of the intimate and fraught politics between author and subject, author and sources about the subject's internal life, and author and audiences. Together with the authors in this Special Issue, we hold that it is generative to face the inevitable difficulties of biography and that it is not a failing to expose them to view.