Ulteriori informazioni
The Biographical Turn showcases the latest research through which the field of biography is being explored. Chapters cover subjects such as gender, religion, race and microhistory, presenting biography as as a research methodology suited not only for historians but also for explorations in areas including literature studies, sociology, economics and politics.
International in scope, this book emphasizes that the individual can have a lasting impact on the past and that lives that are now forgotten can be as important for the historical narrative as the biographies of kings and presidents. It is a valuable resource for all students of biography, history and historical theory.
Sommario
Acknowledgements
List of contributors
Introduction
1 The Biographical Turn: Biography as Critical Method in the Humanities and in Society
Section 1: The Biographical Turn in the Humanities
2 Biography as Corrective
3 The Plurality of the Past: Historical Time and the Rediscovery of Biography
4 The Life Is Never Over: Biography as a Microhistorical Approach
5 Personalized History: Biofiction, Source Criticism and the Topicality of Biography
6 The Life Effect: Literature Studies and the Biographical Perspective
7 Biography as a Concept of Thought: On the Premises of Biographical Research and Narrative
Section 2: The Biographical Turn in Fields of Knowledge
8 Biographies as Multipliers: The First World War as Turning Point in the Lives of Modernist Artists
9 ‘Honest Politics’: A Biographical Perspective on Economic Expertise as a Political Style
10 Rediscovering Agency in the Atlantic: A Biographical Approach Linking Entrepreneurial Spirit and Overseas Companies
11 Building Bridges to Past Centuries: Religion and Empathy in Early Modern Biography
12 Palatable and Unpalatable Leaders: Apartheid and Post-Apartheid Afrikaner Biography
Section 3: The Biographical Turn in Academia and Society
13 Biography Is Not A Selfie: Authorization as the Creeping Transition from Autobiography to Biography
14 What Are We Turning From? Research and Ideology in Biography and Life Writing
15 Liberation From Low Dark Space: Biography Beside and Beyond the Academy
16 From Academic Historian to Popular Biographer: Musings on the Practical Poetics of Biography
Bibliography
Index
Info autore
Hans Renders is Professor of History and the Director of the Institute of Biography at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His publications include Theoretical Discussions of Biography: Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing (2014). He is the cofounder of Biographers International Organization (BIO), the Vice-President of the Biography Society/La Société de Biographie and a jury member for the Plutarch Award for best American biography.
Binne de Haan is a research staff member of the Biography Institute at the University of Groningen. His publications include Theoretical Discussions of Biography: Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing (2014), and an English translation of his PhD thesis Van Kroon tot Bastaard (From Prince to Pauper: Biography and the Individual Perspective in Historiography) is forthcoming.
Jonne Harmsma is a PhD researcher in the Biography Institute at the University of Groningen and is working on a biography of the Dutch Prime Minister and Central Bank President Jelle Zijlstra.
