1) Definition (CUET-ready)
Life writing is an umbrella term for non-fictional (and sometimes hybrid) genres that narrate, record, or interpret a person’s life and selfhood. It includes:
- autobiography,
- biography,
- memoir,
- diary/journals,
- letters,
- testimonies,
- oral histories (often transcribed).
Life writing is not just “facts”: it involves self-fashioning, memory, selection, and narrative craft.
2) Core subgenres (high-yield)
A) Biography
- written by someone else,
- reconstructs a life through documents, witnesses, interpretation.
B) Autobiography
- written by the subject,
- retrospective narrative of a life,
- creates a coherent “self” through story.
C) Memoir
- focuses on a period/theme/experience rather than whole life,
- more scene-based, reflective.
D) Testimonio / witness narrative (advanced but useful)
- life story as collective/political witness (often marginalized voices),
- raises ethical questions of representation and mediation.