Is there a one word antonym of "hagiography"? A word which means "a piece of writing that paints a biography in the most negative light possible"?
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1I guess that would be… slander?– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Dec 9, 2014 at 21:08
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1Can you clarify whether you mean a) a biography that paints a widely revered person in a negative light, or b) a biography of a widely reviled person?– Rusty TubaCommented Dec 9, 2014 at 21:10
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1A "hatchet job," maybe?– Sven YargsCommented Dec 9, 2014 at 21:17
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1A demonization?– TimRCommented Dec 9, 2014 at 21:31
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1@RustyTuba- Or c), (as literally asked for by OP) a piece of writing that pans a biography. For example a book review of the book The true Biography of William Shakespeare: "The True Biography of William Shakespeare is the worst biography I've ever read. The only thing I find even remotely useful about this book is its caloric value in my wood stove."– JimCommented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:43
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2 Answers
is a written attack, often but not exclusively ad hominem, that emphasizes the poor quality of the object of the attack.
is a fancy word for the same.
is the same with the expectation of falsehood. They all have the same notion of strong bias by the author that hagiography does.
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Excellent choices, thank you. FWIW, I always think it is helpful to put a link to a dictionary definition of the words. However, I looked them up myself. Commented Dec 9, 2014 at 23:49
If you are unafraid of obscurity and want to stick with something Greco-Latinate that somehow parallels the word whose antonym you seek, then maybe combine hagiography with iconoclasm to get:
hagioclasm
I have found one and only one precedent, in Michael Knox Berran's Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless Mind:
He longed to handle the relics, to meditate in the groves, to pray in the shrines sacred to the sainted prophet of the Republicans. But he would do so with the passion that destroys sanctity rather than exalts it, and in a fit of hagioclastic zeal he determined to show up his old protector's stigmata for a fraud.
It's that "destroys sanctity [non-ecclesiastically conceived, as in your modern usage of "hagiography"] rather than exalt it" that underlines the meaning...
NB: Further uses:
Heroes, Hagiography, and Villany - Tim Challies
Dark Chaucer: An Assortment by Myra Seaman
Broken Idols of the English Reformation by Margaret Aston
answered Dec 9, 2014 at 21:27
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Does one instance (or now, do two instances) of a letter-string make it a word? Most definitions demand a reasonable track record. Commented Dec 9, 2014 at 23:52
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Not all that appears in print etc justifies being called a word. We've looked at pseudowords and non-words before. Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:11
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1But look at nohat's philosophy, with which I agree: 'I really don't feel comfortable at all with our site becoming a place where people go who want a word invented. While I delight in exciting new words being invented and promulgated, I think we will rapidly lose our reputation as a place where people can get authoritative answers if many answers are not authoritative but just merely inventive.' (nohat) And OP phrases his question very acceptably, requesting a word. Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:37
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3If the moderators feel that my answer is contributing to the degradation of this site, then they may remove it. I don't feel it's out of line, and I don't think my answer is damaging the reputation of the site (a reputation which is compromised more greatly by other concerns, in my opinion), but I will submit to the crowd. I mean to the moderators. Two different things. Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:41