Global Subjects: The Transnationalisation of Biography
The writing of lives is still by and large determined by the conceptual framework of the nation state. The life of an individual is interwoven with his or her social, political as well as cultural contexts; biography is thus frequently limited by the national borders within which it is mainly situat...
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| Published in: | Life writing 2012-09, Vol.9 (3), p.249-258 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The writing of lives is still by and large determined by the conceptual framework of the nation state. The life of an individual is interwoven with his or her social, political as well as cultural contexts; biography is thus frequently limited by the national borders within which it is mainly situated. However, due to the globalisation processes which affect the humanities in general and biography studies in particular, there is an increasing interest in global or cosmopolitan subjects whose lives exceed national borders. Furthermore, those aspects of a subject's life come under scrutiny which mark it as transnational or transcultural. The depiction of 'global lives' allows for national borders to be transgressed and contests the tenacious concept of the nation state. However, global subjects also draw attention to social, cultural and political borders that shape our life stories despite increased global interconnectedness. Intensified mobility results in the transnationalisation of lives, which has to be taken into account by biography studies. A focus on transcultural life narratives can also lead to the re-evaluation of existing biographies on subjects from earlier centuries.
Drawing on theories of cosmopolitanism and cultural transfer as well as taking into account the implications of postcolonial studies for the writing of biographies, I will discuss the concept of global subjects and the impact of taking a transnational approach towards the writing of lives. The main focus is on how the transnationalisation of biographies affects our understanding of a subject's cultural identity. |
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| ISSN: | 1448-4528 1751-2964 |