Autobiography as presentation of i̇ndividualism

The task of autobiography is to reconstruct the integrity of a lived life through the time. Reinterpretation and reorganization of a lived life also makes autobiography a genre that investigates the self. The fact that autobiographies are transformation narratives of a person from the past to the present, sheds light on their relationship with the self. Again, the fact that autobiography is a retroactive narrative indicates that at its foundation there is the act of remembering. In autobiographical narratives an experienced life is consciously presented together with the act of remembering. The life lived before the time of remembering also gains meaning at the moment of remembering. As a result of all these, the person that remembers his/her past, records the time that has passed. This study on the theory of autobiography is conducted in two flanks; Western and Turkish literature. In the first section of the study the philosophical, historical development of autobiography, in the second section the meanings of autobiography in the Western World and the criticism directed to them; and in the third section the place and development of autobiography in the Turkish literature is studied.