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Couser, G. Thomas. Memoir: An Introduction. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012. 
Added by: joachim (6/16/13, 5:25 PM)   Last edited by: joachim (7/23/14, 5:33 PM)
Resource type: Book
Language: en: English
ID no. (ISBN etc.): 0199826900
BibTeX citation key: Couser2012
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 Categories: General
Keywords: "Fun Home", "Maus", Autobiography, Bechdel. Alison, Spiegelman. Art, USA
Creators: Couser
Publisher: Oxford Univ. Press (New York)		 Views: 5/1136
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Abstract
Each year brings a glut 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 Introduction proffers a concise history of the genre (and its many 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 like Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones; its early American roots are examined in Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and eighteenth-century captivity narratives; and its ethical conundrums are considered with analyses of the imbroglios brought on by the questionable claims in Rigoberta Menchú’s I, Rigoberta, and more notoriously, James Frey’s A 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’s My Architect), and graphic narratives like Art Spiegleman’s Maus. In sum, Memoir: An Introductionprovides a succinct and comprehensive survey to today’s most popular form of life-writing.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments (vii)

Introduction (3)
1. What Memoir Is, and What It Is Not (15)
2. Memoir and Genre (33)
3. Memoir’s Forms (54)
4. Memoir’s Ethics (79)
5. Memoir’s American Roots (108)
6. Contemporary American Memoir (140)
7. The Work of Memoir (169)

Works Cited (185)
Index (199)


  
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