Autobiography and Childhood

“Autobiography” derives from the Greek terms autos (self), bios (life), and graphein (writing), and is most commonly understood as a cultural text in which a person represents their own life. The practice has long been associated with the written word: well-known, published books in which significant people record their remarkable lives. Traditionally, autobiography has been characterized by so-called “great men,” usually white and European, recounting their lives as they approach their later years. However, cultural change in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—particularly second-wave feminism, decolonization, globalization, the rise of technology, and mass and digital media—have changed “self-life-writing” radically. The development of alternative types of first-person and life storying, including memoir, documentary, reality television, blogs, vlogs, and diverse and ever-emerging forms of social media (e.g., YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok), has consistently brought new voices and subjects into the public sphere. Life narration, in its various forms, has become a diverse, global genre. It is now steeped in the various written and oral traditions in which people have told stories about their lives for thousands of years and across myriad locations. The terms “autobiography,” “life writing,” and “life narrative” have become umbrella descriptors for the plethora of ways in which people of all ages, cultures, and locations represent themselves, their lives, or the lives of others on a daily basis. Childhood is, unsurprisingly, a common theme within autobiography. Childhood is where life begins, and autobiographies of childhood have brought a greater understanding of the diverse ways in which people experience childhood.