Issue Details: First known date: 2024... 2024 Biography, History and Democracy : Contemporary Writing about Australian Lives
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Biography is one of the most potent arts of democracy because it links the individual to the body politic and to history. It stands in parallel with independent long-form journalism. Whereas independent journalism is under threat, biography is currently one of the most popular and productive genres of publishing, breaking down the stratification of readership associated with almost every other category of writing. In the academy, the status of biography has transformed over the last few decades, with historians embracing the genre, literary studies scholars experimenting with form, and a wealth of new infrastructure embedding biographical inquiry in Australia. The biographical turn in Australia has brought the two disciplines of history and literary studies closer together and enriched their scholarship. David Marr’s Patrick White, Fiona Capp’s My Blood’s Country, Mark McKenna’s Return to Uluru and Alexis Wright’s Tracker are just some examples of the field over the last 30 years. This article considers the principles underpinning contemporary biography and its practice. It reflects on the particular challenges of writing about living subjects, negotiating intimacy and privacy, and the uses of empathic listening in biographical interviews. It also explores the value of collective biography as a genre of current significance.' (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Journal of Australian Studies Australian Life Writing vol. 48 no. 2 2024 28502105 2024 periodical issue

    'Transnationalism has been the subject of much scholarly reflection over the last two decades. In one of the earliest definitions of the term, historian Aihwa Ong suggests:

    Trans denotes both moving through space or across lines, as well as changing the nature of something. Besides suggesting new relations between nation-states and capital, transnationality also alludes to the transversal, the transactional, the translational, and the transgressive aspects of contemporary behavior and imagination that are incited, enabled, and regulated by the changing logics of states and capitalism. 

    'In the context of Australia—a multicultural society that is necessarily multiethnic, multireligious, multiracial and multilingual—Ong’s emphasis on movement and change across many spheres of activity is particularly apt. Indeed, critical interventions that over-privilege the national or limit analysis to within its borders undermine the multiplicity inherent in Australian society, culture and identity.' (Editorial introduction)
    2024
    pg. 165-178
Last amended 2 Aug 2024 10:40:45
165-178 Biography, History and Democracy : Contemporary Writing about Australian Livessmall AustLit logo Journal of Australian Studies
Subjects:
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X