In this book project, I have systematised my theoretical considerations and practical experience with the genre "biography". The book analyses the structure, function and operation of biographies and demonstrates this using selected sample biographies. It is not intended to provide as complete an overview as possible of the extensive research on biography or to trace research discussions, but rather to examine biographies as a medium for observing and negotiating society. The focus is on the "biographical paradox": philosophers and sociologists describe people as fragmented beings, but the genre of biography requires the narrative unity of a life course from birth to death, and this paradox brings the constructivist character of biographies to the centre of attention.

Publications (selection):

• Etzemüller, Thomas: How to make a historian. Problems in writing biographies of historians, in: Storia della Storiografia 27, 2008, H. 53, pp. 46-57
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: Biographies. Lesen - erzählen - erforschen, Frankfurt/Main, New York 2012
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: The biographical paradox - or: when does a biography cease to be a biography?, in: Non Fiktion 8, 2013, pp. 89-103
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: How I remain silent about myself. The scientific self-biography of Max Planck, in: Erben, Dietrich/Zervosen, Tobias (eds.): Das eigene Leben als ästhetische Fiktion. Autobiography and professional history, Bielefeld 2018, pp. 321-329
  
• Etzemüller, Thomas: Biography as (paradoxical) construction, in: Klein, Christian (ed.): Handbuch Biographie. Methods, Traditions, Theories, Stuttgart ²2022, pp. 81-89