From there, we can draw a straight line to all memoirs that followed. Although Confessions is technically an autobiography in structure, the intimacy of his narrative was a new phenomenon. I loved my own undoing.” Ever since, we’ve been hooked on the idea that we can get to know a stranger so intimately, even (and especially) a famous one. Augustine of Hippo began writing The Confessions of Saint Augustine, telling the world of his sins: “It was foul, and I loved it. (In fact, “memoir” comes from the French “mémoire” or “memory.”) In Night, the Nobel Prize-winning title, Elie Wiesel tells his own story about one period of his life – how he survived his teenage years at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Memoirs still include all the facts of the event, but the author has more flexibility here because she is telling a story as she remembers it, not as others can prove or disprove it. The author’s feelings and assumptions are central to the narrative. Memoir authors choose a pivotal moment in their lives and try to recreate the event through storytelling. To define memoir, we loosen the constraints of an autobiography. Washington’s Up from Slavery is an example of autobiography – the story begins with his childhood as a slave, proceeds through his emancipation and education, and ends in his present life as an entrepreneur. Although it’s subjective, it primarily focuses on facts – the who-what-when-where-why-how of their life’s entire timeline. An autobiography is also written from the author’s perspective, but the narrative spans their entire life. It’s often conflated with autobiography, but there are a few important differences. "Memoir" DefinitionĪ memoir is a narrative, written from the perspective of the author, about an important part of their life. Here’s how we define memoir, its history and types, and how to get started writing your own. The memoir genre satisfies two of our most human desires: to be known, and to know others. More focused than an autobiography, a memoir is an intimate look at a moment in time.
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