Philippine E-Journals

Zhao Baisheng. (2003).A Theory of Auto/ Biography. Beijing: Peking University Press. 272 pp. CNY18.00.

Sun Jianguang | Wang Chengjun

 

Abstract:

Though Chinese biographical literature has a long history, it still goes on without its own theories. Small wonder. Not only has the biographical literature been ignored in China, but in the western countries as well, wherein research lags behind writing. Carl Van Doren (1915) said pessimistically that no criticism had nearly touched on the field of biography. (p. 180) But this phenomenon happened in the early 1920s. From 1970s, biographical literature theories, especially, autobiographical theories, have been paid unprecedented attention in the western countries. Many researchers had aroused much interest in auto/biography criticism.