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'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.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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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
