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Memoir Introduction

Non-fiction writing, particularly memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies. A memoir should be true. The author should not alter the truth in telling his or her story. Memoirs are written in first person from the author's point of view.

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415 views

Memoir Introduction

Non-fiction writing, particularly memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies. A memoir should be true. The author should not alter the truth in telling his or her story. Memoirs are written in first person from the author's point of view.

Uploaded by

api-281157777
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Non-Fiction and Graphic Novels

One of the most popular genres that uses sequential art in storytelling (i.e. graphic novels) is
non-fiction writing, particularly memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies. But before we
start looking at examples of these texts, lets explore the differences between these types of
writing.
A memoir is a special kind of autobiography, usually involving a public portion of the
authors life as it relates to a person, historic event, or thing. The text is about the personal
knowledge and/or experiences of the author.
In contrast, an autobiography covers the authors entire life to the present, and is expected
to include details about his or her public and private life. A biography is someones life story
written by another person.
Examples of memoirs
Elie Wiesels Night relates true stories of fellow concentration camp sufferers during the
Holocaust of WWII based on the authors shared experiences with them. He limits our
glimpses of his own ordeals, including them reluctantly as a vehicle to chronicle the others
suffering, perhaps due to survivors guilt.
Irene Spencers Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamistss Wife is about polygamy from
the authors personal experience of it. Now in a monogamous marriage, which was beyond
the topic of this memoir, Spencer did not give us the details of her life outside of polygamy.
Memoir: Fact or fiction?
Obviously, a memoir should be true. The author should not alter the truth in telling his or
her story. In fact, Elie Wiesel checked the text and made minor corrections in his book,
Night, before it was published in the US to make it as truthful as possible.
Memories are faulty, so a little leeway is given to authors of memoirs, but they are expected
to be honest and to check their facts for accuracy. Creating fiction and passing it off as
nonfiction, as apparently was done by James Frey in his controversial A Million Little
Pieces, is completely unacceptable.
Memoir writing techniques
A memoir is written in first person from the authors point of view.
It is narrative nonfiction written in story form like fiction. Dialogue can be included, but
since few people can remember precisely every word spoken, the dialogue is not literally
true; instead the author attempts to recreate it as accurately as possible. The memoir
author should think small and make a series of reducing decisions, says William Zinsser,
author of the perennially popular book,
Each memoir has a particular theme or focus
A memoir does not contain everything from this particular slice of the authors life, but
rather, events are selected and examined for meaning relative to the purpose of the book.
The author has questioned what happened and come to some kind of new understanding or
lesson learned by it. The author shows us how he or she was affected by this experience,
how it has profoundly changed the way he sees the world. And by extension, reading the
book will change the way the reader sees the world.
Copyright 2006-2007 by Barbara Doyen. All rights reserved.
(http://www.barbaradoyen.com/writing-nonfiction/what-is-a-memoir-what-makes-amemoir-different-from-an-autobiography-or-biography)

Non-Fiction and Graphic Novels


1. What do you think is the value in reading:
Provide at least one answer for each of the questions below.
(i) biographies?

(ii) autobiographies?

(iii) memoirs?

2. How could the telling of a life event change if it is told by someone else? Write down something that
has happened to you in recent memory that left an impression on you, recording the important details
below:

Non-Fiction and Graphic Novels


3. Why do you think writers choose the graphic novel form as a way of writing a biography or
autobiography, particularly the memoir type of autobiography? Think of two possible reasons.

1. ___________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________

4. The author shows us how he or she was affected by this experience, how it has profoundly changed
the way he sees the world. And by extension, reading the book will change the way the reader sees the
world. Do you think that traditional biographies/autobiographies have that kind of impact? Do you think a
graphic novel can have the same impact on the reader as the traditional text? If so, how?

5. What kind of topics or themes would you expect graphic novel autobiographies or biographies to be
about? Give two examples of possible topics or themes.

Non-Fiction and Graphic Novels


5. if you were to try to illustrate childhood, what would it look like? Use the four panels below to
represent childhood (doesnt have to be yours).

Non-Fiction and Graphic Novels


6. if you were to illustrate your life from birth to now in four panels, what would they look like?

Non-Fiction and Graphic Novels


7. If you were to write a memoir about your life, what would you write about?

8. What would be the most important things to get across to the reader for the story to be meaningful to
others?

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