Handbook of Life Writing

Alfred Hornung · Helga Schwalm

Oct 2026 · Handbooks of English and American Studies Book 20 · Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

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760

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About this ebook

Life writing is a major cultural phenomenon across all media today. Both as a subjectof inquiry and as a methodological tool, it plays an important role in a wide rangeof academic disciplines, including literary and cultural studies, history, sociology,psychology, education, ecology, and medicine. It occupies a particularly prominentplace in English and American Studies. As a concept, life writing encompasses thetraditional genres of autobiography and biography—with their long and distinguishedhistories—as well as a broad spectrum of other forms of representing one’s life orthat of others, ranging from diaries and journals to portraits, fi lm, and digital media,including Instagram and other online platforms.

This handbook explores the diverse forms, practices, and poetics of life writing inEnglish and American literatures and cultures from both systematic and historicalperspectives. Covering the period from the Middle Ages to the present, it also mapsemerging methodologies, forms, and practices of life writing in the transatlantic andtransnational Anglophone world. Special attention is given to new transdisciplinaryengagements with the life sciences, including the biological humanities and narrativemedicine.

The handbook is an essential guide for students, scholars, critics, and practitionersseeking to read, research, teach, and practice life writing.

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About the author

Alfred Hornung, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany; Helga Schwalm, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.

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