ABSTRACT Biography (with autobiography) has become the most popular type of non-fiction in South Africa, but the recent expansion of works has not inspired commentary. Here we describe four ‘constellations’ of biographies: political biographies of the individual-as-leader; social history biographies of the individual-as-exemplar; literary biographies of the individual-as-vessel-of-self; and critical studies biographies of the individual-as-fragmented-subject. Reviewing the politics of biography in South Africa and the nature of the project, we conclude that biography is an inescapably awkward enterprise, because of the intimate and fraught politics between author and subject, author and sources about the subject’s internal life, and author and audiences. Together with the authors in this Special Issue, we hold that it is generative to face the inevitable difficulties of biography and that it is not a failing to expose them to view.

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种族隔离后南非的传记：尴尬的呼唤

摘要传记（带自传）已成为南非最受欢迎的非小说类型，但最近作品的扩展并没有激发评论。在这里，我们描述了传记的四个“星座”：作为领导者的个人的政治传记；以个人为榜样的社会历史传记；个人作为自我容器的文学传记；和作为碎片化主体的个体的批判性研究传记。回顾南非传记的政治和项目的性质，我们得出结论，传记是一个不可避免的尴尬事业，因为作者和主题、作者和关于主题内部生活的来源、作者和观众之间的亲密和充满政治。 . 与本期特刊的作者一起，