Introduction: Towards Biography Theory

Résumé :

On the one hand, biography is in part a literary genre, long disparaged as minor — but after Deleuze this should rather be considered as a promising asset. What some German scholars call its “Theorieresistenz” is much less a resistance to theorisation that would be inherent to biography, than a resistance of “theory” to biography, due to the particular bend of a period in the history of the humanities, and especially literary science, characterised by the hegemony of literary theory over literary history and criticism. On the other hand, biography imposes itself de facto as a practice, that for all intents and purposes seems central to some post‑“theory" advancements in the humanities.