MEMOIR: An Introduction

MEMOIR: An Introduction

Each year brings a batch of new memoirs, ranging from works by former teachers and celebrity has-beens to disillusioned soldiers and bestselling novelists. In addition to becoming bestsellers in their own right, memoirs have become a popular object of inquiry in the academy and a mainstay in most MFA workshops. Courses in what is now called "life writing" study memoir alongside personal essays, diaries, and autobiographies. <em>Memoir: An Introduction</em> proffers a succinct and comprehensive survey of the genre (and its <em>many </em>subgenres) while taking readers through the various techniques, themes, and debates that have come to characterize the ubiquitous literary form. Its fictional origins are traced to eighteenth-century British novels; its early American roots are examined in Benjamin Franklin's <em>Autobiography </em>and colonial captivity narratives; and its ethical conundrums are considered via the imbroglios brought on by the questionable claims in Rigoberta Menchú's <em>I, Rigoberta</em>, and more notoriously, James Frey's <em>A Million Little Pieces</em>. Alongside these more traditional literary forms, Couser expands the discussion of memoir to include film with what he calls "documemoir" (exemplified in Nathaniel Kahn's <em>My Architect</em>) and graphic narratives like Art Spiegelman's <em>Maus</em>.<br>