On the afternoon of November 29, 2018, an excellent academic lecture entitled “Speculative Biography: Theory, Methodology, Case Study” was held by School of Foreign Language.The speaker is Dr. Kevin A. Morrison, who is a doctoral tutor at Syracuse University and a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore.This lecturewas heldby Professor Yang Chaojun, Dean of School of Foreign language Learning. What’s more, considerable postgraduates and doctoral students arrived at meeting site with high interest.
Professor Morrison explained the developmentprocess, significance, as well as research methods of speculative biographies, and demonstrated the characteristics of speculative biographies through showingtremendous case studies.Professor Morrison pointed out that the biography began in the 17thcentury, the author of biography retell the hero's life story by collecting biographical materials (such as letters, diaries, memoirs and photographs).The speculative biography went through four stages: factual record, historical material, interpretation and speculation. In addition, he noticed that the speculative biography is not a fictitious biography, nor a historical novel, nor a lie, but an art. On the basis of reality, the author makes reasonable speculation through known information, giving it dual characteristics of fiction and authenticity and the biography is closely related to history, the most common method is history research method during the writing and research process. In order to let students and teachers know something more clearly, Professor Morrison used a lot of studies to explain the complexity of the speculative biography.
At the end of the lecture, Professor Morrison gave detailed answers to the questions posed by teachers and students, and pointed out that the creative process of each speculative biographer was different. The author endowed his speculation and imagination with logic, thus making the work more convincing and readable, on the other words, speculative biographies did not entirely focus on the truth, but on the process of seeking truth. This lecture is fascinating, leading teachers and students into a new field, providing a unique perspective, all teachers and students believe that this lecture will exert greatinfluenceon future academic research.(Author: Xia Jie)
