Autobiography is a form of non-fictional literature, the subject of which is the life of an individual, written by him self. In it the subject recounts his or her own history. It can be seen as a branch of history, because it depends on a selective ordering and interpretation of materials, written and oral, established around the writer’s personal life.
Autobiographies belong to the branch of confessional literature. In the Romantic Period, many writers’ confided their thoughts and feelings to the readers. They explored the depths of their souls. Rousseau’s Confession, George Moore’s Confessions of a young Man belong to this kind of literature. Autobiographies are to be distinguished from memories and diary or journal. Memories record mainly the people and the events that the author has seen and experienced. Diary is a day-to-day record of the events in a man’s life. But autobiographies trace the development of the author from childhood to maturity through interaction with other characters and events.
Benjamin Franklin, John Stuart Mill, Winston Churchill wrote autobiographies, which, in their truth and design are remarkable achievements. Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s “The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian” deserves mention for its vigorous and bold description of the passing away of Indo-British culture.
But autobiographical writing can easily pass into fiction when rational inference or conjecture pass over into imaginative reconstruction or frank invention or when the subject itself is wholly or partly imaginary.
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