Biography and the Question of Literature in France

This critical study offers a compelling three-century exploration of how French literature and biography have shaped one another, tracing their intertwined evolution from the eighteenth century when both terms gained their modern meanings. Ann Jefferson examines how the very definition of literature—understood as aesthetically marked writing—has been persistently challenged and redefined through its dynamic relationship with life writing. The work argues that literature's identity is not fixed but is inherently open to revision, using the lens of biography to demonstrate this continual contestation across different literary periods. This historical analysis provides a sophisticated framework for understanding how narrative forms and authorial lives intersect.

What distinguishes this scholarly work is its ambitious chronological scope and its central thesis that biographical discourse has been a crucial, active force in debating and shaping French literary values. Readers with a deep interest in literary theory, French intellectual history, and genre studies will find particularly rich material in its examination of how life writing informs literary creation and reception. The book makes a significant contribution to literary criticism by demonstrating that questions of authorship and personal history are not peripheral but central to understanding literature's evolving nature. Its impact lies in reframing biographical study as fundamental to literary history rather than merely supplementary.