Liang Qingbiao ed., The Biographer's Revenge: Essays of Modern Western Research on Life Writing, Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2015. 412 PP.

Life writing has been an independent genre. Since the late 20^th century, the research on life writing has also developed its discourse system and been included in the current international academic trends. In 1990s, there was an exuberance in life writing theories and criticism, and it has been an independent domain different from fictional criticism. It’s a regret that, although some Chinese scholars have paid attention to this phenomenon, we are still in lack of introduction and translation of Western theoretical works in this sphere, which hinders the development of “poetics of life writing” in China. In this situation, the Center for Life Writing, SJTU launched this project: The Biographer's Revenge—Essays of Modern Western Research on Life Writing. 17 essays in English, French, German and Russian were chosen and included in this volume, of which most were published after 1990. These articles cover a wide variety of aspects: from theoretical construction to text analysis, from general criticism to close reading, and some of them are about the history and future of life writing. Most of the authors are famous scholars or biographers in the field of life writing all over the world. We hope that this book will contribute to the development of Chinese life writing.