Biography: Between History and Fiction

In my biography of Laura Méndez de Cuenca (1853-1928), one of Mexico’s first feminists, I share the theoretical ideas of the French school in relation to biography as a historical/literary genre that balances solid documentation with literary creativity and a dosis of fiction. This does not imply embracing novelized biography but establishing a dialectical relationship between fact and fiction.   By fiction I do not mean inventing facts but reconstructing historical episodes based on documentation with the objective, on the one hand, of filling in blanks that make the text more fluid, and, on the other, converting the hard style of  historical texts into a more accessible prose to broaden its potential audience. This approach navigates between scientific and literary identities to enrich the literary quality of the narration. In my paper, I will demonstrate my method with reference to my biography of Laura Mendez de Cuenca.