Memoir

for other uses, see Memoir (disambiguation)

As a literary genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire from the Latin memoria, meaning "memory"), or a reminiscence, forms a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are today almost interchangeable. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. An autobiography, from the Greek αὐτός autos "self" βίος bios "life" and γράφειν graphein "to write"

Nature of memoirs

Memoirs may appear less structured and less encompassing than formal autobiographical works as they are usually about part of a life rather than the chronological telling of a life from childhood to adulthood/old age. Traditionally, memoirs usually dealt with public matters, rather than personal, and many older memoirs contain little or no information about the writer, and are almost entirely concerned with other people. They tended to be written by politicians or people in court society, later joined by military leaders and businessmen, and often dealt exclusively with the writer's careers rather than their private life. Modern expectations have changed this, even for heads of government. Like most autobiographies, memoirs are generally written from the first person point of view.

Gore Vidal, in his own memoir Palimpsest, gave a personal definition: "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked. Gore Vidal (born October 3 1925 ˌgɔər vɪˈdɑːl or /vɪˈdæl/ is an American Novelist, Screenwriter, Playwright, A palimpsest is a Manuscript page whether from scroll or Book that has been written on scraped off and used again " It is more about what can be gleaned from a section of one's life than about the outcome of the life as a whole.

The author of a memoir may be referred to as a memoirist. Contemporary practices of writing memoirs for recreational, family or therapeutic purposes are sometimes referred to as legacy writing or personal history. These are sometimes written with the help of a professional "personal historian. "

Types of memoir

Memoirs have often been written by politicians or military leaders as a way to record and publish an account of their public exploits. In the eighteenth century, "scandalous memoirs", allegedly factual but largley invented, were written (mostly anonymously) by prostitutes or libertines: these were widely read in France for their vulgar details and gossip. Prostitution is the act of performing Sexual activity in exchange for Money. Libertine has come to mean one devoid of any restraints especially one who ignores or even spurns religious norms accepted morals and forms of behaviour sanctioned by the larger society This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. In another vein, the pagan rhetor Libanius framed his life memoir as one of his orations, not the public kind, but the literary kind that would be read aloud in the privacy of one's study. Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller rustic" is a word used to refer to various religions and religious beliefs from across the world Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Libanius ( Greek: Λιβάνιος, Libanios; ca 314-ca 394 was a Greek-speaking teacher of rhetoric of the later Roman Empire, an educated This kind of memoir refers to the idea in ancient Greece and Rome, that memoirs were like "memos," pieces of unfinished and unpublished writing which a writer might use as a memory aid to make a more finished document later on. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC

Women writers have been prominent amongst those combining the memoir form with historical non-fiction writing. Examples include Helen Epstein's Czech-based Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for her Mother's History and Jung Chang's Wild Swans. Jung Chang ( born March 25, 1952) is a Chinese -born British writer now living in London, best known for her family Autobiography Wild Swans Three Daughters of China is an autobiographical family history by Chinese writer Jung Chang. Maxine Hong Kingston's book The Woman Warrior is an example of a memoir that combines factual material with fictional material as it tells the author's story and the story of her family. Maxine Hong Kingston (湯婷婷 born October 27 1940) is an American Professor Emeritus at the University of California Berkeley The Woman Warrior Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a nonfictional Memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Vintage Books

Some professional contemporary writers such as David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs have specialised in writing amusing essays in the form of memoirs. David Sedaris (born December 26, 1956) is a Grammy Award -nominated American Humorist, Writer, Comedian, bestselling Augusten Xon Burroughs (born Christopher Robison on October 23, 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American Writer To some extent this is an extension of the tradition of newspaper columnists' regular accounts of their lives. A columnist is a Journalist who writes material on a regular basis for publication in a series (Cf. the work of James Thurber which often has a strong memoir-like content). James Grover Thurber ( December 8, 1894 &ndash November 2, 1961) was an American Humorist and Cartoonist.

Another category of memoir is the eyewitness account of history by onlookers to major events or particular eras; Slave narratives fall into this category as do those by Primo Levi, Heda Kovaly, and Elie Wiesel. Primo Michele Levi ( July 31, 1919 &ndash April 11, 1987) was a Jewish Italian Chemist, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (born Eliezer Wiesel on September 30 1928 in Sighetu Marmaţiei, Romania) is a Jewish writer professor political activist

Dictionary

-noun

An autobiography; a book describing the personal experiences of an author.
Any form of narrative describing the personal experiences of a writer.

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Nature of memoirs

Types of memoir

See also

Dictionary

memoir

-noun