Writing Artists' Lives Across Nations and Cultures Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality

As an introduction to the volume, this chapter explores recent developments relating to the study and practice of biography across nations and cultures, discussing key issues in the humanities that have significant implications for writing the lives of writers, musicians and visual artists. These include the resurgence in scholarly interest in artists’ biographies; the rise of biofiction and the ways in which this mode of writing is distinguished from biography; the death and return of the Author; and the prominence that transnationality has assumed in studies of life writing, challenging the traditional framework of the nation-state. It also outlines the aims and scope of the volume, and concludes with a one-paragraph summary of each of its chapters in turn.