On Auto/Biography in Sociology

The specification of temporal origins for biography and autobiography — typically within the Enlightenment or modernism — that appear in sociological discussion are interrogated through discussing two parallel sites of origin. The first is Merton's discussion of `sociological autobiography', the second the feminist concern with reflexivity within sociological research processes. Both are related to the notion of `auto/biography'. `Auto/biography' disrupts conventional taxonomies of life writing, disputing its divisions of self/other, public/private, and immediacy/memory. Relatedly, `the auto/biographical I' signals the active inquiring presence of sociologists in constructing, rather than discovering, knowledge.