The Encyclopedia of Life Writing

Jolly, Margaretta. Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms. London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001.

I mentioned once before that I'm quite interested in this massive tome and what it means for professional roles that I might take on. I guess the main issue here is to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of putting my readings in Chinese literature into a broader "world literature" context.

For now, this will be the notes page for my occasional readings in this encyclopedia. I'll do my best to be a more interrogating reader, and to bring in some of the objections to world literature that I've heard but failed to note carefully before.

China: to the 19th Century (Wu, 206-8) "If biography in various guises constitutes probably the largest component of Chinese writings, Chinese autobiography is by comparison minuscule." Li Qingzhao, Li Zhi, Wang Jie, Mao Qiling.

Gender (Helena Grice, 359-60) Women have a "relational" self, which leads to more fragmented autobiography; men are individualistic and so produce "seamless narrative." There's something vaguely troubling about this now-standard generalization. Also, is Jade Snow Wong really a decent representative of the Chinese sense of "self"? There is a good list here showing "the recent flourishing autobiographies of transsexuals"

Lesbian and Gay Writings

Xie Bingying (971-2) Zhao Baisheng's entry reminds me that he once said he disagreed with Jolly about some of the Chinese entries here. Remember to ask him for more of that story.