Between History and Memory: Writing Speculative Lives
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Central
‘Between History and Memory: Writing Speculative Lives', Joe Moran in conversation with Alison Light to mark the publication of her memoir, Red, Red Robin: My Long Goodbye to Home.
Followed by a reception.
Book here (BetweenHistoryMemory.eventbrite.co.uk)
In her latest book, Red, Red Robin, Alison Light tries to put herself into history, using sources from her own life and from the postwar period. Joe Moran is writing a family memoir provisionally titled The Scattering: A Life in Circles.
Together they will discuss the shadowy field of life writing, its limits and its possibilities. How might we think about the enormous popularity of memoir, for instance, as a form in contemporary culture? What might be problematic about the 'subjective turn' in history-writing? To what extent can a life writer speculate to fill in gaps in the sources? These are some of the questions up for discussion.
Alison Light is the author of several books including Mrs Woolf and the Servants, Common People and A Radical Romance. She is currently an Honorary Fellow in History and English at Pembroke College Oxford.
Joe Moran is the author of several books including the forthcoming The Lost Art of People-Watching (Viking, 2027). He is a Professor of English at Liverpool John Moores University.
For information contact Katy (k.pettit@bbk.ac.uk)
Contact name: Katy Pettit
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