Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 497 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2020) Biographical Studies of Ernest Hemingway in the 21st Century: New Trends and New Features Siyu Chen College of Literature and Journalism, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610064, China Corresponding author: Siyu Chen. Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT The biographical criticism of Ernest Hemingway, as an indispensable part of Hemingway studies, has been playing a crucial role in injecting vigor and vitality with its vast number of biographical works, rich content and various forms. This paper focuses on the new Hemingway biographies published since the 21st century. By summarizing and selecting representative works, this paper discovers that biographical studies of Hemingway in the 21st century transform from comprehensiveness to specialization, from general biographies to thematic biographies. Besides, there are five new features: (1) extension of new research areas; (2) exploration of innovative and unique research perspectives; (3) application of diverse research approaches; (4) discoveries of new research materials; (5) the diversity of Hemingway’s biographers. Keywords: Ernest Hemingway, biographical criticism, 21st century, new trends, new features 1. INTRODUCTION 2. NEW TRENDS: FROM COMPREHENSIVENESS TO Ernest Hemingway, as an American writer who enjoys SPECIALIZATION worldwide fame, has exerted far-reaching influence on the American literature and even the world literature. In the 20th century, most of the biographies of Hemingway’s literary works are widely spread throughout Hemingway concentrated on the comprehensiveness of his the world while his unique writing style has affected life experience, while in the 21st century, biographies have numerous writers and Hemingway aficionados, thus turned to become more specialized, focusing on a certain making Hemingway studies in academia vibrant and period of Hemingway’s life, an important event, a visit to prosperous.