"There's History in All Men's Lives"

If the ancients had known the concept of postmodernity – and if they had had the technology –, they it might have introduced the invention of hypertext immediately after the publication of Plutarch's Parallel Biographies: the highly philosophical nature of the genre (think of Diogenes Laertius!) and the historically ambitious scope of the work would have demanded it. As it was, biography had to be reduced to a subgenre of history, condemning it to (often chronological and dull) exigences of present-day politics. But biography is far from being a structurally unified thing (think of biography and autobiography: looking at one's own life and that of another is fundamentally different), and far from being a mere subgenre of history; the latter must be concluded for its very reason of existence: the preservation of memory (Herodotus).

Shakespeare's introductory thought, which provides the title of this talk, is not only a brilliant poetic line, but also a deeply thought-provoking reference about the links between biography and historiography. This talk will take a percussive look at some major biographical works to see why we should think of an individual's biography as something larger.