Fear of Theory
Towards a New Theoretical Justification of Biography
Published on 2. December 2021
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-90-04-49854-9 (ISBN)
Description
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Recent academic historiography has seen a profusion of theoretical perspectives on biography, both analytical and descriptive. Yet many biographers still fear 'theory' as antithetical to accessible narration of real lives.
This volume presents eighteen essays by more than a dozen scholars and practitioners from Australia, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, and the United States who seek to banish such fear. Writing with candor, wide experience and familiarity with modern teaching, they examine the riches greeting the biographer willing to think more deeply about biography: its inner workings and rationale in a world still hungry for fact and truth.
Contributors are: Nigel Hamilton, Sigur?ur Gylfi Magnusson, Emma McEwin, Melanie Nolan, Kerstin Maria Pahl, Eric Palmen, Hans Renders, Carl Rollyson, David T. Roth, Istvan M. Szijarto, Jeffrey Tyssens, and David Veltman.
See inside the book.
Recent academic historiography has seen a profusion of theoretical perspectives on biography, both analytical and descriptive. Yet many biographers still fear 'theory' as antithetical to accessible narration of real lives.
This volume presents eighteen essays by more than a dozen scholars and practitioners from Australia, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, and the United States who seek to banish such fear. Writing with candor, wide experience and familiarity with modern teaching, they examine the riches greeting the biographer willing to think more deeply about biography: its inner workings and rationale in a world still hungry for fact and truth.
Contributors are: Nigel Hamilton, Sigur?ur Gylfi Magnusson, Emma McEwin, Melanie Nolan, Kerstin Maria Pahl, Eric Palmen, Hans Renders, Carl Rollyson, David T. Roth, Istvan M. Szijarto, Jeffrey Tyssens, and David Veltman.
See inside the book.
Reviews / Votes
"This exciting new volume provides reflections and debates about biographical theory and methods from some of the field's leading practitioners and critics through a series of essays, case studies, and jousting among microhistorians. It raises some of the fundamental questions about the nature of biography, if not always answering them definitively. The debates will continue, and this volume will play an important role in stimulating and advancing them."- Daniel R. Meister, University of New Brunswick
"[T]his book [...] proves to be an important attempt to find theoretical background for biographical research. [...] With the return to its academic roots, it is only logical that biography needs to find theoretical and epistemological 'allies' and even though it is not an easy task, I praise this book for initiating it."
- Jana Wohlmuth Markupova, Charles University, Dejiny-Teorie-Kritika, February 2022.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
561 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-49854-9 (9789004498549)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Hans Renders is Professor in History and Theory of Biography at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). He has written two biographies and has published on biographical theory in various international journals. He is Editor-in-Chief of the series Biography Studies.
David Veltman has a PhD from the University of Groningen. His dissertation, a biography of the artist Felix de Boeck, was written at the Biography Institute. He has published before in Biography. An Interdisciplinary Quarterly.
David Veltman has a PhD from the University of Groningen. His dissertation, a biography of the artist Felix de Boeck, was written at the Biography Institute. He has published before in Biography. An Interdisciplinary Quarterly.
Content
Notes on Contributors
Foreword: Scaffolding a House: Biography and the Role of Chance in a Life
Gu?ni Thorlacius Johannesson
Section 1: Reflections on Theory and Biography
1 The Deep-Rooted Fear of Theory Among Biographers
?Hans Renders
2 The Missing Key: Theorizing Modern Historical Biography
?Nigel Hamilton
3 'Have They Caught the Cambridge Structuralist Yet?' Biography Writing and the Fear of Theory
?Jeffrey Tyssens
4 Biography and Emotional Practice
?Kerstin Maria Pahl
5 The Great Individual in History: Historicising Historian's Biographical Practice
?Melanie Nolan
6 The Backside of the Biography: Microhistory as a Research Tool
?Sigur?ur Gylfi Magnusson
Section 2: Case Studies
7 Beyond Verification and Falsification: Biography as Go-Between of Historical Truth
?Eric Palmen
8 History That Addresses Biography: Ethics and the Vatican
?Hans Renders
9 Brief Lives: A Microhistorical Approach
?David T. Roth
10 'Une generation spontanee': Kandinsky Seen Through the Eyes of Felix de Boeck (1898-1995)
?David Veltman
11 Template for a Biography: What's the Sense of Theory
?Hans Renders
12 Building a Better Biography
?Carl Rollyson
13 Capturing the Subject: Virginia Woolf 's Battle with Biographical Boundaries
?Emma McEwin
Section 3: Dossier on Microhistory
14 The Representativeness of a Reputation: A 'Third Wave' in Microhistory
?Hans Renders and David Veltman
15 The Devil Is in the Detail: What Is a 'Great Historical Question'?
?Sigur?ur Gylfi Magnusson
16 Arguments for Microhistory 2.0
?Istvan M. Szijarto
17 Exceptions That Prove the Rule: Biography, Microhistory and Marginals
?Hans Renders
Bibliography
Index
Foreword: Scaffolding a House: Biography and the Role of Chance in a Life
Gu?ni Thorlacius Johannesson
Section 1: Reflections on Theory and Biography
1 The Deep-Rooted Fear of Theory Among Biographers
?Hans Renders
2 The Missing Key: Theorizing Modern Historical Biography
?Nigel Hamilton
3 'Have They Caught the Cambridge Structuralist Yet?' Biography Writing and the Fear of Theory
?Jeffrey Tyssens
4 Biography and Emotional Practice
?Kerstin Maria Pahl
5 The Great Individual in History: Historicising Historian's Biographical Practice
?Melanie Nolan
6 The Backside of the Biography: Microhistory as a Research Tool
?Sigur?ur Gylfi Magnusson
Section 2: Case Studies
7 Beyond Verification and Falsification: Biography as Go-Between of Historical Truth
?Eric Palmen
8 History That Addresses Biography: Ethics and the Vatican
?Hans Renders
9 Brief Lives: A Microhistorical Approach
?David T. Roth
10 'Une generation spontanee': Kandinsky Seen Through the Eyes of Felix de Boeck (1898-1995)
?David Veltman
11 Template for a Biography: What's the Sense of Theory
?Hans Renders
12 Building a Better Biography
?Carl Rollyson
13 Capturing the Subject: Virginia Woolf 's Battle with Biographical Boundaries
?Emma McEwin
Section 3: Dossier on Microhistory
14 The Representativeness of a Reputation: A 'Third Wave' in Microhistory
?Hans Renders and David Veltman
15 The Devil Is in the Detail: What Is a 'Great Historical Question'?
?Sigur?ur Gylfi Magnusson
16 Arguments for Microhistory 2.0
?Istvan M. Szijarto
17 Exceptions That Prove the Rule: Biography, Microhistory and Marginals
?Hans Renders
Bibliography
Index