The genre of biography is, by nature, imprecise and limited. Real lives are lived synchronously and diversely; they do not divide spontaneously into chapters, subjects or themes. All biographers construct stories, in the process forcing the disordered complexity of an actual life into a neat literary form. This doctoral submission comprises a book length creative work, Poisoned: The Trials of Mary Dean, and a reflective written component on that creative work, Writing Fictionalised Biography. Poisoned is a biography of Mary Dean, who, although repeatedly poisoned by her husband at the end of the nineteenth century, did not die. This biography, presented in the form of a first-person memoir, is based closely on historical evidence and is supported with discursive notes and a select bibliography. The reflective written component, Writing Fictionalised Biography, outlines the process and challenges of writing a biography when the source material available is inadequate and unreliable. In writing Poisoned my genre solution has been fictionalised biography - biography which is historically diligent while utilising fictional writing strategies and incorporating fictional passages. This written component reflectively discusses how I arrived at that solution. It includes discussion of the sources I utilised in writing Poisoned, including the limitations of trial transcripts and other court records as biographical evidence; useful precursors to the form; the process wherein I located both a form for my fictionalised biography and a voice for my biographical subject; possible models I considered; how I distinguished established fact from speculative supposition in the text; as well as some of the ambivalences and ethical concerns such a narrative process implies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/265332 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Brien, Donna Lee |
| Publisher | Queensland University of Technology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Donna Lee Brien |
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