pathography

American  

[puh-thog-ruh-fee] / pəˈθɒg rə fi /

noun

plural

pathographies

1. a biography that focuses on the negative elements of its subject.

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Etymology

Origin of pathography

1910–20 for an earlier sense; popularized by Joyce Carol Oates, U.S. writer

Example Sentences

But responsible biographers never set out to produce hagiography or pathography.

From Time • Nov. 21, 2014

Set entirely in a hotel room in London not long before Garland’s death in 1969, “Rainbow” is theater as pathography.

From New York Times • Feb. 23, 2012

Ms. Lowell is the author of “Why Not Say What Happened?,” a coolly told and critically praised memoir of a childhood whose outlines were, even by the standards of contemporary pathography, baroque.

From New York Times • Dec. 21, 2010

The fearful ups and downs of Judy Garland's life are ideally suited to the horror-show style of biography Joyce Carol Oates has dubbed "pathography."

From Time Magazine Archive

The Marcos Dynasty, which ends with Imelda and an ailing Ferdinand flying off to exile in Hawaii, falls into the morbid subbranch of literature that Joyce Carol Oates has dubbed pathography.

From Time Magazine Archive