Experimental History. Communications & Media Essay

SPECULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Speculative Bibliography
Research Statement
Research into the events and lives of individuals can play an important role in predicting the history and values of the society at any given lace. A speculative biography involves the study of the life of individuals in a given period and utilizing the information presented to imagine the world at the time of the growth of the subject. The actions that a protagonist took at a particular instance represents the circumstances that led to the actions taken. Historians have utilized this method in their discovery of the origin of the earth and several other species that were never known. The historians and anthropologists utilize a series of research papers coupled with imaginations to sustain their arguments. In our speculative study of the biography of Mary Summerland and Caroline Quinn, we utilize both the available facts and our imagination to create an idea of what the society looked like. A comparison of the two cases helps us validate our our imaginations. The way that Caroline Quinn is treated in the contemporary world indicates the similar way that women were treated in the modern society. First of all, women were not allowed to engage in sex before marriage as evident by the way the society respondent to Mary Summerland’s case. The same values are still present in the contemporary society as the women are still not expected to engage in premarital sex. In both cases, the role of men is not discussed, which helps us understand the preferential treatment of the men and the women. The comparison shows the largely insignificant changes that the society has undergone in terms of its values irrespective of the gap between the two periods. It indicates that societal transformations remain a challenging procedure, where the norms are only transformed from one state to another without key changes. Therefore, the speculative bibliography plays an important role not only towards understanding the history of an individual, but also that of the society.
Introduction
The article entitled “Wet Their Bones with Sweat and Blood, Knit Their Bones with Me: Reflections on Arts-Based Research into Colonial Western Australia Child Murder (1829-1901)” by Gardiner Amanda highlights the experiences of Mary Summerland, a 20-year-old woman accused in 1832 of murdering her newborn child at the port town of Fremantle, Western Australia. The article, in a thesis entitled Unearthing Mary Summerland, tells Mary Summerland’s story in three interwoven voices that interact to create a better interpretation of her life’s experiences. Gardiner tries to uncover the live of a women who did not get a chance to experience her full motherhood. He tries to present the experience of the mother who does the taboo crime of killing her child. By delving into the lives of such women, the author allows the reader in contemporary times to perceive the world in the colonial times and try to imagine that incidents that led to the murder. The author allows the reader to speculate about the life of Mary Summerland and that of several other women in terms of the challenges they faced and how...