Memoir as Nonfiction and Poetry

Memoir as Nonfiction

In the previous topic, you learned the characteristics of biographies and autobiographies. An autobiography tells the life story of a person as written by that person, and a biography tells the story of someone else's life. Both forms are considered types of narrative nonfiction, but there is one more form of which you should be aware: the memoir.

A memoir is a collection of memories about events from the author's life. Typically, a memoir is considered a subcategory of autobiography. Although both are written from the author's first-person point of view, it is important to note that the terms autobiography and memoir should not be used interchangeably. An autobiography tells the entire story of a person's life, usually in a chronological order, and still requires research to verify dates, places, names, etc. On the other hand, a memoir has a more narrowed focus and relies solely on the personal recollections of the author.

The basic differences between an autobiography and a memoir are summarized in the chart below:

Autobiography	Memoir
Recounts a person's entire life story, usually in a chronological order	Recounts a collection of memories that cover a specific time period, topic, or theme from a person's life
Requires research to verify exact dates, places, names, etc.	Includes only what the author remembers

Memoir as Poetry

By now you have learned that everything in literature is connected and how literary forms, techniques, and devices can be mixed and matched to create a truly unique and masterful work of literature. Narrative nonfiction is a mixture of elements from nonfiction and fiction. Drama can be used to both tell a story and reflect the reality of the present. Historical fiction has traditional story elements but also includes real people, places, or events. Poetry can tell a story or focus on one specific moment, emotion, or description. The form of the memoir is not excluded from this phenomenon.

Because a memoir is a reflection or recollection of a memory, it can be easily transformed into poetry. Both in form and structure, poetry is open to experimentation, especially in the Modernist and Postmodernist literary periods. A poem can rhyme or not rhyme, have meter or not have meter, tell a story or not tell a story; it really is entirely up to the poet and the content of the poem. It is for this reason that poetry is an excellent medium for expressing a memory.

 

Maxine Hong Kingston

One of the more notable poets of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is Maxine Hong Kingston. Born in California to Chinese immigrants in 1940, Kingston has long been an example of an innovative writer in Postmodernism. At the age of thirty-six, Kingston's first book, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, was published to almost immediate acclaim, winning the National Critics Circle Award in 1976. In her book, Kingston relates her memories of growing up between worlds, caught between the alien culture of her parents and the equally strange mysterious American culture. The Woman Warrior combines memoir with myth and poetry and is at times meditative of the reality of living between cultures.

Since the success of her first book, Kingston has gone on to publish several more autobiographical works and novels, including China Men, Hawai'i One Summer, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, The Fifth Book of Peace, and Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. Her writing has earned her many awards and great acclaim. However, it has also contributed to the feminist movement and shined a light on the struggles of immigrants and the often abusive treatment received throughout America's history. Most recently, Kingston has published a third autobiographical work titled I Love a Broad Margin to My Life. Embracing some Postmodernist characteristics, this latest publication incorporates memoir with poetry while reflecting on the reality of aging using an often jumbled or chaotic verse.

Literary Nonfiction Study

Neither Into the Wild nor The Color of Water can be classified as a memoir. However, each story does include memories in the process of telling a life story. Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild incorporates journal entries, messages, and postcards written by the subject of his novel, Chris McCandless. James McBride includes stories told to him by his mother that both tell him about her life and fill in the blanks about his own. As you read, reflect on these memories and consider how the story would be different if they had not been included.

 

Memoir Review

Now that you have explored memoirs as nonfiction and poetry, review your knowledge in this non-graded activity. Read each statement and decide whether it is true or false, and then select the appropriate answer. Click on the player button to get started.