The Biographical Turn: Lives in History

305 Pages·2016·2.12 MB·English

by  Hans Renders, Binne De Haan, Jonne Harmsma

THE BIOGRAPHICAL TURN
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 a research methodology suited
not only for historians but also for explorations in areas including literature
studies, sociology, economics and politics. By emphasising 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 emphasises 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.
Hans Renders is Professor of History and the Director of the Biography
Institute 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.
THE BIOGRAPHICAL TURN
Lives in history
Edited by Hans Renders, Binne de Haan and Jonne
Harmsma
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Hans Renders, Binne
de Haan and Jonne Harmsma
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
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only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Renders, Hans, editor. | Haan,
Binne de, editor. | Harmsma, Jonne Title: The biographical turn : lives in history / edited by Hans Renders,
Binne de Haan and Jonne Harmsma.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016032750| ISBN 9781138939707 (hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138939714 (pbk.
: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315469577 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Biography. | Biography as a literary form. | History—Methodology.
Classification: LCC CT21 .B4625 2016 | DDC 809/.93592—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016032750
ISBN: 978-1-13893970-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-13893971-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-31546957-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
List of contributors
INTRODUCTION
1 The biographical turn: Biography as critical method in the humanities and in
society
Hans Renders, Binne de Haan and Jonne Harmsma
SECTION 1
The Biographical turn in the Humanities
2 Biography as corrective
Nigel Hamilton
3 The plurality of the past: Historical time and the rediscovery of biography
Sabina Loriga
4 The life is never over: Biography as a microhistorical approach
Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon
5 Personalised history: On biofiction, source criticism and the critical value of
biography
Binne de Haan
6 The life effect: Literature studies and the biographical perspective
Joanny Moulin
7 Biography as a concept of thought: On the premises of biographical research
and narrative
Christian Klein
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
Hans Renders and Sjoerd van Faassen
9 ‘Honest politics’: A biographical perspective on economic expertise as a
political style
Jonne Harmsma
10 Rediscovering agency in the Atlantic: A biographical approach linking
entrepreneurial spirit and overseas companies
Kaarle Wirta
11 Building bridges to past centuries: Religion and empathy in early modern
biography
Enny de Bruijn
12 Palatable and unpalatable leaders: Apartheid and post-Apartheid Afrikaner
biography
Lindie Koorts
SECTION 3
The biographical turn in academia and society
13 Biography is not a selfie: Authorisation as the creeping transition from
autobiography to biography
Hans Renders
14 What are we turning from? Research and ideology in biography and life
writing
Craig Howes
15 Liberation from low dark space: Biography beside and beyond the academy
Carl Rollyson
16 From academic historian to popular biographer: Musings on the practical
poetics of biography
Debby Applegate
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The editors would like to thank the Nicolaas Muleriusfonds Foundation for their
generous
support of this publication.
Chapter 3, ‘The Plurality of the Past: Historical Time and the Rediscovery of
Biography’, by
Sabina Loriga, was translated by Chloe Morgan. Chapter 8, ‘Biographies as
Multipliers: The First World War as Turning Point in the Lives of
Modernist Artists’, by Hans Renders and Sjoerd van Faassen and Chapter 11,
‘Building Bridges to Past Centuries: Religion and Empathy in Early Modern
Biography’,
by Enny de Bruijn, were translated by Wichard Sam Boersma. Chapter 13,
‘Biography Is Not a Selfie: Authorisation as the Creeping Transition from
Autobiography
to Biography’, by Hans Renders, was translated by Sybren Bonnema.
The author of Chapter 4, ‘The Life Is Never Over: Biography as a
Microhistorical Approach’, Sigurður Gylfi
Magnússon, expresses his gratitude for the support he has enjoyed from the
Icelandic
Research Fund (IRF, nr. 141237-051) during his research. Parts of Chapter 16,
‘From Academic Historian to Popular Biographer: Musings on the Practical
Poetics
of Biography’, by Debby Applegate, have been published before in: Leigh Eric
Schmidt,
Catherine Brekus, Nick Salvatore, Matthew Avery Sutton and Debby Applegate,
‘Forum’,
Religion & American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 24, 2014, 1–35.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Debby Applegate was a Sterling Fellow at Yale University where she earned
her PhD in American Studies and has taught at Wesleyan and Yale Universities.
Her first book, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry
Ward Beecher (Doubleday 2006), won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
She is currently working on Madam: The Notorious Life and Times of Polly
Adler (forthcoming from Doubleday).
Enny de Bruijn studied Dutch language and literature at Utrecht University, the
Netherlands, and is currently working as journalist and author in the field of
literature and history. She earned her PhD in 2012 with a biography of the
seventeenth-century poet and theologian Jacob Revius. She is currently working
on a popular history book about seventeenth century farmers’ mentalities and
country life in the Guelders River area in the Netherlands.
Sjoerd van Faassen studied Dutch language and literature at Leiden University,
the Netherlands, and was at great length Head of Collections at the Museum of
Dutch Literature. He is currently a affiliated researcher at RKD – Netherlands
Institute for Art History. He published studies on Dutch literary history,
especially on the history of cultural periodicals and publishers of the
Interbellum. He is currently working on a biography about the Dutch artist,
architect and theorist Theo van Doesburg (together with Hans Renders).
Binne de Haan is a research staff member of the Biography Institute of the
University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He earned his PhD in 2015 with the
dissertation Van kroon tot bastaard. Biografie en het individuele perspectief in
de geschiedschrijving (From Prince to Pauper: Biography and the Individual
Perspective in Historiography), in which he analysed the relationship between
biography and historiography. He has edited the volumes Theoretical
Discussions of Biography. Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life
Writing (with Hans Renders, 2014) and Microhistory and the Picaresque Novel:
A First Exploration into Commensurable Perspectives (with Konstantin Mierau,