Memoir An Introduction [Paperback]

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.Memoir: An Introductionproffers a succinct and comprehensive survey of the genre (and itsmanysubgenres) 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'sAutobiographyand colonial captivity narratives; and its ethical conundrums are considered via the imbroglios brought on by the questionable claims in Rigoberta Mench?'sI, Rigoberta, and more notoriously, James Frey'sA Million Little Pieces. Alongside these more traditional literary forms, Couser expands the discussion of memoir to include film with what he calls documemoir (exemplified in Nathaniel Kahn'sMy Architect) and graphic narratives like Art Spiegelman'sMaus.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. What Memoir Is, and What Memoir Isn't
2. Memoir and Genre
3. Memoir's Forms
4. Memoir's Ethics
5. Memoir's American Roots
6. Contemporary American Memoir
7. The Work of Memoir
Works Cited
Index

Couser intelligently and capaciously introduces memoir for the general reader. --American Book Review

Deft, rigorous, and remarkably wide-ranging, Couser's volume is a superb example of accessible scholarship. It will serve as an ideal introduction to memoir for students, a clarifying and stimulating text for scholars, and a splendidly engaging introduction to life writinls$