Abstract
Authors of biofiction fictionalize the lives of actual historical figures not so much to represent the past accurately as to create a new reality in the present and for the future. In this essay, the author shows how Barbara Chase-Riboud and Lin-Manuel Miranda fictionalize the lives of Sally Hemings/Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton in order to bring into existence a new way of national thinking and being.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 25-48 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | a/b: Auto/Biography Studies |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:I want to thank the University of Minnesota, Morris for funding a visit to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop estate, and for providing the funding to attend a performance in Chicago of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Without this funding this project would not have been possible. Also, I would like to thank my daughter Katya, whose passion for Hamilton inspired the idea for this essay.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Autobiography Society.
Keywords
- Alexander Hamilton
- Sally Hemings
- Thomas Jefferson
- founding biofictions