Memoir

I've enjoyed researching and studying the nonfiction subgenre of memoir, in preparation for an informal presentation that a classmate and I are preparing for Thursday night's theory class. The text basis for our discussion is A Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman, a controversial memoir.

I'd like to re-read some of the memoirs that I've read in the past (such as A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel). I read them without really considering it's authentic literary value beyond the pure entertainment of the narrative and characters. Moreover, I never thought to seriously question how or why the memoir was being written. I read with an easy kind of faith.

Here are some of the websites where we've gathered information from:

• Memoir, a explanatory definition of the subgenre
• A New York Times Magazine article from 1996, "Confessing for Voyeurs: The Age of The Literary Memoir Is Now" by James Atlas
• a review from 2000 of Dave Eggers and his "ironical memoir"
• Judith Barrington's Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art

and for any teachers out there... a high school memoir writing unit plan