Abstract

LOAIZA CANO, Gilberto. THE BIOGRAPHICAL RESOURCE. hist.crit. [online]. 2004, n.27, pp.221-238. ISSN 0121-1617.

Biography is a genre of writing that has been accepted with reluctance by 20th century historiographers; it is a hybrid genre that oscillates between the social sciences and literature. In Colombia, there has been little reflection upon our biographical tradition, for which reason this essay presents some of the essential problems posed by biography: among them, the Individual's role in history. Finally, the author considers historical biography to be a possible solution to the individual's relation to the normative context that determines it and to the relationship between the stylistic demands of biographical narrative and the requirements of research in the social sciences.

Keywords : biography; historical biography; individual; event; structure; structuralism; determinism.

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