Different Lives: Global Perspectives on Biography in Public Cultures and Societies ed. by Hans Renders and David Veltman (review)

Abstract

ideas of selfhood.” Online diaries proliferated during recent pandemic lockdowns. Some of these were spontaneous and others were solicited and collected by scholarly organizations such as the Centre for Life Writing at Oxford and the Mass Observation Project at the University of Sussex. Henderson’s text likewise draws examples from far and wide, including a course syllabus on life writing at the University of Texas at Arlington, and she cites diaries written in diverse cultures (including Iraqi, Vietnamese, French, Polish, Japanese, American, and Canadian diaries) and diaries written from diverse perspectives from the sixteenth century to the present with the most recent online examples. In short, Henderson’s how-to text is a springboard for many kinds of discussions and projects, a useful starting point for researchers and students, effectively and wisely packaged but covering a wide array of topics that all fit in that elusive but intriguing category of the “diary.”