Memoir writing discussion

[tomfyhr]

This a post about the writing of a conventional memoir, where questions and suggested may be included.

Does anyone know whether memoirs usually have a date at the top of a page, like a diary has?

Is there a structural difference between a memoir, autobiography and diary?

Can it be said that a memoir has a exposition, climax and resolution, similar to a narrative?

[Jackson Richardson]

I'm not sure what you are after. A diary is written up day by day, or at least in sections as time passes. An autobiography is a biography written by the subject him or her self.

Memoirs as far as I know mean recollections of the subject's own time from their own knowledge but not necessarily about themselves. For example, Horace Walpole wrote memoirs of the time of George I and George II. He was not writing about himself but what he had heard at the time and since his father was Prime Minister to both kings and Horace was a very good friend (Lady Suffolk) had been the put upon mistress of George II, he had plenty to gossip about. I've glanced at his memoirs online and they are not very structured, just Horace gossiping away.

Can you think of any examples of memoirs?

[Jackson Richardson]

All autobiographies are memoirs. Not all memoirs are autobiographies.

Newman's Apologia pro vita sua and Bunyan's Grace Abounding would probably be regarded now as autobiographies, or at least "spiritual" autobiographies. But they didn't write them to tell us about themselves. They wrote to support their religious beliefs, relating the personal experiences which had lead them to those beliefs. So in that sense they wrote memoirs.

My gut feeling is that "memoirs" is a rather old fashioned term that isn't used nowadays. Jeanette Winterson's Oranges are not the Only Fruit is technically a novel, but as far as I can tell it is a partial autobiographical memoir. The sequel, Why be Happy when you could be Normal is definitely a memoir, but it isn't called that - it only explains as much of her life as to explain her lesbianism, just as Newman only tells so much as to explain why he became a Roman Catholic.

[Danik 2016]

I would say an autobiographie is a usually rounded up narrative with beginning and end. To develope it you chose the facts that you consider the most important in your life.
The diary is a more minucious usually dated record. Appart from this it may contain almost anything. For example, I remember the very fragmented "Intimate Diary" of the Brazilian writer Lima Barreto. Besides more personal passages it contains descriptions, plans of stories he was starting to write, character sketches, extracts from books he was reading, newspaper articles, letters, an list of household expenses, etc.

[tomfyhr]

Can you think of any examples of memoirs?

I believe "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden, and "Paula" by Isabel Allende are example of memoirs, correct me if I am wrong.


I would say an autobiographie is a usually rounded up narrative with beginning and end. To develope it you chose the facts that you consider the most important in your life.

Could it be intepretated as ´episodes´, since my teacher mentioned that the reflections about certain events in a memoir could be ´episodes´.

What is the layout of a memoir and does it differ from an autobiography or dairy in terms of layout?

[Danik 2016]

Tom,
In my opinion all these definitions must be taken broadly. Basically I think you can say that an autobiography is when someone, usually a famous person, tells the story of his/her own life. The narrator
may recall episodes from his life which he remembers or which other people told him/her (from his/her early childhood, for example). But in this genre you always have to consider the intervening subjectivity, which may alter, omit and create facts. And what if the biographer chooses to tell the story all based on his/her feelings and not on the facts?
The dairy as the name itself suggests is based on daily records. It usually doesn´t follow a storyline, it may contain gaps, it may start and/or finish abruptly.

I should ask your teacher for suplementary bibliography on both theses genres.