Theoretical Discussions of Biography

Theoretical Discussions of Biography PDF Author: Hans Renders
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780773417519
Category : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Languages : en
Pages : 451

Book Description
Biography has been around at least since the time of Christ, but it was not called that until the late seventeenth century, and even then it was conflated with other terms to describe essentially the same activity. Developed over centuries there has been surprisingly little systematical theoretical work done on the genre of biography. Not only does this text serve as a historical primer on biography it provides a touchstone text on the theories behind the phrase, why it became prominent, and whether or not it can be critically analyzed as a historiographical and literary genre. Whether Biography is a genuine academic genre has long been a nagging question. These days no serious scholar can deny its place in the Humanities. It is omnipresent as a genre, and narrative tradition in the study of the history and interpretation of human lives. However, the field of Biography Studies seems scattered and insecure. Specifically the connections between Biography and History, Microhistory and Life Writing are being discussed. The selected authors have taken up positions in this current debate by means of exploratory but programmatic texts. The volume includes an introduction and contribution by Nigel Hamilton, an award winning biographer and biography scholar.

Theoretical Discussions of Biography

Theoretical Discussions of Biography PDF Author: Hans Renders
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004274707
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
Theoretical Discussions of Biography: Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing offers comprehensive overviews by 14 academic scholars of the actual state of the field of Biography Studies, specifically by connecting biography with microhistory, journalism, and Life Writing.

Biography in Theory

Biography in Theory PDF Author: Wilhelm Hemecker
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110516691
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
This textbook is an anthology of significant theoretical discussions of biography as a genre and as a literary-historical practice. Covering the 18th to the 21st centuries, the reader includes programmatic texts by authors such as Herder, Carlyle, Dilthey, Proust, Freud, Kracauer, Woolf and Bourdieu. Each text is accompanied by a commentary placing its contribution in critical context. Ideal for use in undergraduate seminars, this reader may also be of interest for academic researchers in the areas of literary studies and history aiming to get an overview of historical questions in biographical theory. This revised and updated English language edition also includes new translations of texts by J. G. Herder and Stefan Zweig, as well as an introductory discussion on the possibility of a ‘theory of biography’.

Fear of Theory

Fear of Theory PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004498893
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
In historiography, many interesting theoretical perspectives on biography have emerged in recent years, from forensics to structure and microhistory. Biographers themselves, though, often fear the study of the genre - needlessly, as these eighteen engaging new essays demonstrate.

The Biographical Turn

The Biographical Turn PDF Author: Hans Renders
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1315469561
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
The Biographical Turn showcases the latest research through which the field of biography is being explored. Fifteen leading scholars in the field present the biographical perspective as a scholarly research methodology, investigating the consequences of this bottom-up approach and illuminating its value for different disciplines. While biography has been on the rise in academia since the 1980s, this volume highlights the theoretical implications of the biographical turn that is changing the humanities. Chapters cover subjects such as gender, religion, race, new media 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. By emphasizing agency, the use of primary sources and the critical analysis of context and historiography, this book demonstrates how biography can function as a scholarly methodology for a wide range of topics and fields of research. International in scope, The Biographical Turn 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.

Biography in Theory

Biography in Theory PDF Author: Wilhelm Hemecker
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110516675
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
This textbook is an anthology of significant theoretical discussions of biography as a genre and as a literary-historical practice. Covering the 18th to the 21st centuries, the reader includes programmatic texts by authors such as Herder, Carlyle, Dilthey, Proust, Freud, Kracauer, Woolf and Bourdieu. Each text is accompanied by a commentary placing its contribution in critical context. Ideal for use in undergraduate seminars, this reader may also be of interest for academic researchers in the areas of literary studies and history aiming to get an overview of historical questions in biographical theory. This revised and updated English language edition also includes new translations of texts by J. G. Herder and Stefan Zweig, as well as an introductory discussion on the possibility of a ‘theory of biography’. Note: Due to copyright reasons, the chapter "Sade, Fourier, Loyola [Extract] (1971)" (pp. 175–177) by Roland Barthes could not be included in the ebook.

The Lost World of Socialists at Europe’s Margins

The Lost World of Socialists at Europe’s Margins PDF Author: Maria Todorova
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350150355
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 379

Book Description
Maria Todorova's book is devoted to the 'golden age' of the socialist idea, broadly surveying the period in and around the time of the Second International. It critically examines the promise for an alternative socialist utopia from 1870 to the 1920s. Todorova brings in the experience of the periphery in a comparative context in the belief that the margins can often elucidate better the character of a phenomenon, and de-provincialize it from essentialist notions. In doing so, The Lost World of Socialists at Europe's Margins moves beyond the traditional historiographical emphasis on ideology by looking at different intersections or entanglements of spaces, generations, genders, ideas and feelings, and different flows of historical time. The study provides a social and cultural history of early socialism in Eastern Europe with an emphasis on Bulgaria, arguably the country with the earliest and strongest socialist movement in Southeast Europe, and one that had a unique relationship to both German and Russian social democracy. Based on a rich prosopographical database of around 3500 biographies of people born in the 19th century, the book addresses the interplay of several generations of leftists, looking at the specifics of how ideas were generated, received, transferred and transformed. Finally, the work investigates the intersection between subjectivity and memory as reflected in a unique cache of archival materials containing over 4000 documentary sources including diaries, oral interviews, and unpublished memoirs. A microhistorical approach to this material allows the reconstruction of 'structures of feeling' that inspired an exceptional group of individuals.

Different Lives

Different Lives PDF Author: Hans Renders
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004434976
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Book Description
Internationally acclaimed biographies are mostly written by Anglophone biographers. How does biography function as a public genre in the rest of the world? Different Lives offers a global perspective on the biographical tradition by seventeen scholars of fifteen different countries.

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States PDF Author: Gabriel J. Loiacono
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197515452
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
What was American welfare like in George Washington's day? It was expensive, extensive, and run by local governments. Known as "poor relief," it included what we would now call welfare and social work. Unlike other aspects of government, poor relief remained consistent in structure between the establishment of the British colonies in the 1600s and the New Deal of the 1930s. In this book, Gabriel J. Loiacono follows the lives of five people in Rhode Island between the Revolutionary War and 1850: a long-serving overseer of the poor, a Continental Army veteran who was repeatedly banished from town, a nurse who was paid by the government to care for the poor, an unwed mother who cared for the elderly, and a paralyzed young man who attempted to become a Christian missionary from inside of a poorhouse. Of Native, African, and English descent, these five Rhode Islanders utilized poor relief in various ways. Tracing their involvement with these programs, Loiacono explains the importance of welfare through the first few generations of United States history. In Washington's day, poor relief was both generous and controlling. Two centuries ago, Americans paid for--and many relied on--an astonishing governmental system that provided food, housing, and medical care to those in need. This poor relief system also shaped American households and dictated where Americans could live and work. Recent generations have assumed that welfare is a new development in the United States. This book shows how old welfare is in the United States of America through five little-known, but compelling, life stories.

Research Methodologies for Auto/biography Studies

Research Methodologies for Auto/biography Studies PDF Author: Kate Douglas
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000005003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Book Description
This collection of short essays provides a rigorous, rich, collaborative space in which scholars and practitioners debate the value of different methodological approaches to the study of life narratives and explore a diverse range of interdisciplinary methods. Auto/biography studies has been one of the most vibrant sub-disciplines to emerge in the humanities and social sciences in the past decade, providing significant links between disciplines including literary studies, languages, linguistics, digital humanities, medical humanities, creative writing, history, gender studies, education, sociology, and anthropology. The essays in this collection position auto/biography as a key discipline for modelling interdisciplinary approaches to methodology and ask: what original and important thinking can auto/biography studies bring to discussions of methodology for literary studies and beyond? And how does the diversity of methodological interventions in auto/biography studies build a strong and diverse research discipline? In including some of auto/biography’s leading international scholars alongside emerging scholars, and exploring key subgenres and practices, this collection showcases knowledge about what we do when engaging in auto/biographical research. Research Methodologies for Auto/biography Studies offers a series of case studies that explore the research practices, reflective behaviours, and ethical considerations that inform auto/biographical research.