Writing Remains: New Intersections of Archaeology, Literature and Science(Explorations in Science and Literature)

Writing Remains brings together a wide range of leading archaeologists and literary scholars to explore emerging intersections in archaeological and literary studies. Drawing upon a wide range of literary texts from the nineteenth century to the present, the book offers new approaches to understanding storytelling and narrative in archaeology, and the role of archaeological knowledge in literature and literary criticism. The book’s eight chapters explore a wide array of archaeological approaches and methods, including scientific archaeology, identifying intersections with literature and literary studies which are textual, conceptual, spatial, temporal and material. Examining literary authors from Thomas Hardy and Bram Stoker to Sarah Moss and Paul Beatty, scholars from across disciplines are brought into dialogue to consider fictional narrative both as a site of new archaeological knowledge and as a source and object of archaeological investigation.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Introduction: New Intersections of Archaeology, Literature and Science. Josie Gill, University of Bristol, UK, Catriona McKenzie, University of Exeter, UK and Emma Lightfoot, University of Cambridge, UK Genetics and Human Inheritance 1. New Materialism, Archaeogenetics and Tracing the Human. Jerome de Groot, University of Manchester, UK 2. Jack London and Before Adam: Ahead of his Time, or a Cautionary Tale in the Study of Prehistoric Hominins? James Walker, University of Bradford, UK and David Clinnick, St Mary's College of California, USA Innovations in Practice through Collaborative Projects 3. ‘Handle with Care’: Literature, Archaeology, Slavery. Josie Gill, Catriona McKenzie and Emma Lightfoot 4. Creative Facticity and ‘Hyper-Archaeology’: The Spatial and Performative Textualities of Psychogeography. Spencer Jordan, University of Nottingham, UK Literature, Archaeology and Layering the Past 5. Deciphering the City: Ancient Egypt in Victorian London and Psychogeographical Archaeology. Eleanor Dobson, University of Birmingham, UK 6. From the Great Castle of the Hill to the Great Mound on the River: Imperialism and Transatlantic Archaeology in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Ancient Earthworks’. Anna West, independent scholar Narrative Archaeology and the Narratives of Archaeologists 7. Something More than Imagination: Archaeology and Fiction. Robert E.Witcher, Durham University, UK and Daniël P. van Helden, University of Leicester, UK 8. The Death of the Archaeologist: Imagining Science, Storytelling and Self-Understanding in Contemporary Archaeofiction. Anna Auguscik, University og Oldenburg, Germany Index

About the Author :
Josie Gill is Lecturer in Black British Writing in the Department of English at the University of Bristol, UK. Catriona McKenzie is a Senior Lecturer in Human Osteoarchaeology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter, UK. Emma Lightfoot is Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Biomolecular Archaeology at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Review :
Drawing on fields as diverse as archaeogenetics and narrative theory, Writing Remains is a much-needed, truly interdisciplinary excavation of the rich ground where archaeology and literature meet. Moving well beyond the conventional treatment of archaeology as metaphor, the editors persuasively argue for the ethical function of literary and archaeological narrative in examining not only the past but also what it means to be human. With special attention to the role of race in these narratives, Writing Remains has a special urgency for our own time.