Saturday, October 11, 2008
Memoir
Prior to reading this article and getting to this section in class I never knew there was the difference between memoir and autobiography. In reading the article this confusion of the genre is shared by many. Truly after reading this article I find I have trouble approaching this blog. Do I document my feelings or just summate the article? This conflict of feelings is comparable to the battle memoir versus autobiography. I can see how the genre of memoir can bring you in because it is a snapshot of someone's life. It allows you to experience the moment, the emotions, and the essence of the overall experience. This type of writing draws people in and gives them an intense moment of passion and not some long drawn out series of play by play, of mostly exaggerated lives. The memoir has blossomed as a genre because it connects , while the autobiography tends to drag you on a ride that you might not want to be on. While each moment is individual in memoir, it has a general appeal because it can happen to anyone versus you can not live out someone's entire life. I am confused by what I was supposed to be getting from this article, maybe it was supposed to inspire this a memoir of the feelings invoked by this article. I hope you enjoyed the ride or at least formed the same questions the arose after I read the Yagoda article.
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2 comments:
I think both autobiography and memoir, if done properly, can bring a reader in, as you say, and allow him or her to connect with the emotions of the experience. I understand the basic different between the two writing genres to be merely focus. And autobiography begins with the birth of the author, or, most often, some background history of the author's family. Then the narrative continues on through the author's life up to the point that he or she is writing the book. A memoir is about one section of an author's life. For example, and excellent memoir I read by one of my favorite author's is "My Detachment", by Tracy Kidder. It is a memoir of his service in the Vietnam War.
Hey I agree with you, I was unaware that there was a difference between a memoir and autobiography. What do you think about what Yagoda is talking about in the article, can anyone write a memoir? What if the person is not truthful? Do you think that the reader would really be able to see through it or just believe it at face value?
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