English literature - Term Paper Example

In the 18th century American literature, the autobiography as a literary genre has attained immense popularity which is illustrated by the notable 18th-century autobiographies in English such as Edward Gibbon’s autobiography and Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. During this period, a more intimate form of autobiography which explores the subject’s emotions came to being, due mainly to the influence of Romanticism, which greatly emphasized the role and the nature of the individual, and Rousseau’s Confessions.

From the writer’s perspective, an autobiography is the best means to express one’s individuality in all its components and it helps one in establishing one’s ideas and concepts explicitly to the readers without any mediocrity. The “self-life-writing” qualifies of an autobiography offer great scope for the writer’s role in literary activity and these qualifies also bring out the advantages and disadvantages of the autobiography genre. Thus, from the writer’s perspective, autobiographies offer the writer the scope to include anything from human geography to reproach, leave out anything they wish, etc and they can turn their books into a litany, a confession, an apology, a cathartic act, an anthology of anecdotes or gossip, or a space to wash polluted laundry.

From the reader’s perspective, the autobiography is an important literary genre which offers the possibility of realizing the inner aspects of a writer without confusion and it helps the readers understand the concepts and ideas that the author emphasizes in his writing. Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography offers one of the best illustrations of the meaning, characteristics, purpose, advantages and disadvantages of the autobiography as a literary genre and this paper makes a reflective analysis of the autobiography.

Autobiography as a literary genre has been a popular means to express one’s emotions and