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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Experimentation and theorising on forms of life writing from the field of history has grown substantially in recent decades, as historians understand how autobiographical narrative may contribute to understanding both the past and our processes of accessing it. The introduction to this special issue on ‘History and Autobiography’ outlines some theoretical debates emerging from the intersection of history with different forms of self-representation, and highlights some of the main points examined by the contributors. Some contributors explore the convergence of history and life writing through an autobiographical voice, while others work theoretically or critically. Beyond these different approaches, all the essays explore to what extent autobiography serves historical writing and comprehension, and examine the theoretical and practical consequences of this convergence.' (Jaume Aurell & Rocio G. Davis, Publication abstract)
Contents
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‘The History That Has Made You’. Ego-Histoire, Autobiography and Postcolonial History,
single work
criticism
(p. 527-538)
'This article takes inspiration from the methodology of ego-historie, where political or intellectual history, institutional affiliations and research trajectories are interwoven with personal reflection, to make connections between context and content. In his essay on ego-histoire (2014) John Docker writes of the ‘marrano-like’ figure, the stranger as evoked by Georg Simmel, both inside and outside a group, disturbing it by a kind of abstraction, a freedom to question what others in the group take as given. Here I employ my insider/outsider status as a British migrant and a ‘naturalised’ Australian to reflect on the ambivalent at best and deliberately ignorant, at worst, relationship between contemporary Britain and postcolonial Australia. As the child of immigrants to Australia, who has returned to the ‘mother-country’ as an adult, I use aspects of my autobiography to reconsider the dynamics of colonialism and post-colonialism in these two countries.' (Introduction)
