Overview
- Provides case studies on memoir as social action
- Highlights memoir’s impact on the public sphere as opposed to other forms of life writing
- Utilizes genre theory to examine form and agency
Part of the book series: American Literature Readings in the 21st Century (ALTC)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- life-writing
- autobiograophy
- genre theory
- Joan Didion
- Ann Patchett
- James McBride
- writing for social action
- memoir writing and social change
- writing and activism
- memoir and marginalized groups
- autobiographical subject
- memoir and selfhood
- memoir and the public sphere
- Mikhail Bakhtin
- Anis Bawarshi
- John Edgar Wideman
- Janisse Ray
- Lucy’s Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face
- The Color of Water
- dialogue in memoir
About this book
This book analyzes a collection of literary memoirs to demonstrate how this genre is an avenue for participation in public life. Writers are repurposing the memoir, a genre known for its personal and expressive function, to engage in debate and serve political goals. The chapters provide case studies for memoir as social action that effects change by looking at the writing of Joan Didion, John Edgar Wideman, James McBride, M. Elaine Mar, Janisse Ray, Lucy Grealy, and Ann Patchett. Drawing on theories of genre and agency, Danielewicz asserts how these writers are acting pragmatically. Memoirs contribute to democratic society by offering solutions, creating new knowledge, revealing social trends, bringing issues to light, creating empathy and connection, and changing public opinion.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Jane Danielewicz is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. Her articles and book chapters represent her interest in both literary and rhetorical studies; she has published in journals such as Life Writing as well as College Composition and Communication. She was named the Richard Grant Hiskey Distinguished Professor of Research and Undergraduate Teaching and has twice received the Max Chapman Faculty Fellowship from the Institute for the Arts & Humanities at UNC. She has won numerous awards for teaching undergraduate and graduate students.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Contemporary American Memoirs in Action
Book Subtitle: How to Do Things with Memoir
Authors: Jane Danielewicz
Series Title: American Literature Readings in the 21st Century
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69602-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-69601-0Published: 23 November 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-88810-1Published: 04 September 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-69602-7Published: 14 November 2017
Series ISSN: 2634-579X
Series E-ISSN: 2634-5803
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 135
Topics: North American Literature, Literary Theory, Contemporary Literature