The Memoir Boom in the United States

Rashida Thielhorn

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Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,7, University of Frankfurt (Main) (IEA...

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Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,7, University of Frankfurt (Main) (IEAS), course: "The Memoir Boom - Literary, Cultural and Social Perspectives", language: English, abstract: All (auto)biographies and memoirs have one thing in common: they are usually written in the retrospective way, meaning that even if they "read chronologically forward, they are composed essentially backward." (Louis Menand in Smith and Watson) In life writing the term "memoir" is complex to define, since it has different definitions, depending on various contexts. The term memoir derives from the French word for "memory", which implies that it could be written in a subjective and impressionistic rather than a factual and strongly evident way. A memoir can neither be fiction, nor a novel, since the memoir genre tries to depict the ultimate truth and the real life of the author, the first-person-narrator or other individuals. Nonetheless nowadays memoirs can also include invented or enhanced materials or novelistic techniques as embellishments, because they are a form of literary art. (Couser) It is often hard to distinguish between memoirs (or factual writing) and fiction, because many works are paradoxically hybrid forms of both of the literary types and additionally fiction often pretends to be factual and to depict the real world. Furthermore the term memoir is often used as a synonym of autobiography, even though it is only a subgenre of autobiography, because the memoir must not be about the author him- or herself: "whereas biography can be about anyone who has ever existed, memoir can only concern someone known to, and remembered by, the author. [...] It will be, or resemble, reminiscence, consisting of personal recollection." (Couser) Memoirs in direct comparison to autobiographies generally tend to be more concise, selective and focused. According to G. Thomas Couser what differentiates life writing from the real life is that "life is long [...] multidimensional and complex, sometimes chaotic; and life writing must have form and focus. Life inevitably far exceeds the capacity of writing to contain it." Even though the memoir genre, and especially its flourishing in the United States of America and Great Britain, is a patriarchy product it strengthened feminism and allowed women to "speak publicly" (in form of a written and published book, a typical memoir). Often the memoirs of female writers report about traumatic periods in their life, such as abuse or violence.