Innovation Of Biography-Research On Will In The World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

Will in the World:How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare is written by Stephen Greenblatt, an American brilliant scholar. It caused great controversy, when it was published in 2004. This article focuses on the problems behind the controversial issue.We persist that, Greenblatt shows his unique academic personality in the following three aspects:process of Shakespeare's self-fashion,Anecdotalism, biographical facts writing. We discuss the practical and theoretical differences between this book and the previous biography from the three aspects. Then we find the book get the breakthrough in the biography methodology.First of all, we analyzed methods that Greenblatt apply the self-fashion theory to biography writing, and methods that Greenblatt integrate various materials for the self-polymerization as clue, to reveal the complexity operation of Shakespeare's self-fashion and discover Shakespeare's mind, which is the biographical writing methods innovation.Secondly, we analyzed methods that Greenblatt apply the anecdotalism theory to biography writing, and methods that Greenblatt show the real life of Shakespeare through the interaction between anecdotal and literary texts. In this area, anecdotes highlights its "Touch of the Real" and "anti-history" those poetic values. It is visible that this book do practice the New Historicism's theory.Finally, we analyzed the biography writing in Will in the World. We find that, first, Greenblatt valued biographical facts, and made detailed research to enhance the authenticity of biography. Second, Greenblatt gived reasonable imagination of biography facts,which reflecting the historical truth concept of New Historicism. Third,regard the the literary texts as as biography facts also broke the existing writing of biographical facts.