Speculative Biography : Experiments, Opportunities and Provocations

著者名：Lee Brien, Donna (EDT)/Lindsey, Kiera (EDT)

Routledge（2021/09/30発売）

• 言語：ENG
• ISBN：9780367515843
• eISBN：9781000454734

Description

While speculation has always been crucial to biography, it has often been neglected, denied or misunderstood. This edited collection brings together a group of international biographers to discuss how, and why, each uses speculation in their work; whether this is to conceptualise a project in its early stages, work with scanty or deliberately deceptive sources, or address issues associated with shy or stubborn subjects. After defining the role of speculation in biography, the volume offers a series of work-in-progress case studies that discuss the challenges biographers encounter and address in their work. In addition to defining the ‘speculative spectrum’ within the biographical endeavour, the collection offers a lexicon of new terms to describe different types of biographical speculation, and more deeply engage with the dynamic interplay between research, subjectivity and that which Natalie Zemon Davis dubbed ‘informed imagination’. By mapping the field of speculative biography, the collection demonstrates that speculation is not only innate to biographical practice but also key to rendering the complex mystery of biographical subjects, be they human, animal or even metaphysical.

Table of Contents

Part 1. Contexts and Methods

Chapter 1:

Experiments, Opportunities and Provocations in Speculative Biography: Opening and Overview

Donna Lee Brien and Kiera Lindsey

Chapter 2:

A New Contextualisation of ‘"The Facts Formed a Line of Buoys in the Sea of My Own Imagination": History, Fiction and Speculative Biography’"

Donna Lee Brien

Chapter 3:

The Speculative Method: Scientific Guesswork and Narrative as Laboratory

Kiera Lindsey

Part 2. Experiments

Chapter 4:

On the Threshold: Conceptual Speculation

Ffion Murphy with Donna Lee Brien and Kiera Lindsey

Chapter 5:

Show Your Workings: Towards A Creative Historical Toolkit

William G. Pooley

Chapter 6:

Scrying the Lost Wildflowers of ‘Wee Witchee Wee’

Kiera Lindsey

Chapter 7:

Writing to Save Sun Bears: Speculating about Non-Human Characters within Biography

Sarah Pye with Paul Williams

Chapter 8:

Choreographing George Balanchine: The Life as Ballet Program

Jessica Wilkinson

Part 3. Opportunities

Chapter 9:

Speculating about a Spy: Working with ‘Suspicious Sources’ in Deciphering the Life of Ralph Harry

Laura Thompson

Chapter 10:

Based on the Evidence and My Experience: The Role of Speculative Biography in a Decolonised Reimagining of the Bungalow, Alice Springs 1914–1929

Linda Wells

Chapter 11:

Bespoke Biography: Writing Fiona Foley Provocateur: An Art Life

Louise Martin-Chew

Chapter 12:

Using Informed Imagination When Writing About Controversial Characters: The Case of Dr Felix Kersten and Himmler

Anne M. Carson

Part 4. Provocations

Chapter 13:

Speculative Historical Viability: A Grave Undertaking?

Paul Sandringham

Chapter 14:

Challenges and Limitations of Speculation in True Crime Biography: A Lawyer’s Lens

Rachel Spencer

Chapter 15:

Biographical ‘Facts’ and Speculative Forms: Writing John and Rose Morley Through New Eyes

Kevin A. Morrison

Chapter 16:

The Curious Case of Cornelius Cardew: An Exercise in Reflective Speculation

Harriet Cunningham

Chapter 17:

Why Not Tell?: Eddie Samuels, the Authentic Self and the Novel as Speculative Autobiography

James Worner

Chapter 18:

Speculative Biography as Dewdrop: Writing Women’s Lives

Deborah Jordan