Memoir and Truth: How the Genre Re-frames Reality

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dc.contributor.authorYoung, Collenen
dc.contributor.committeechairWebster, Travisen
dc.contributor.committeememberCassinelli, Silas M.en
dc.contributor.committeememberReed, Ashleyen
dc.contributor.departmentEnglishen
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-24T08:00:16Zen
dc.date.available2023-05-24T08:00:16Zen
dc.date.issued2023-05-23en
dc.description.abstractThis paper examines the relationship between memoir and truth, and the implications of that relationship for the rhetorical work that memoirs do. It uses the grounding example of Tara Westover's 2018 memoir Educated and looks at how the recreation of events within her life works both in conjunction with the way she portrays them in the text and juxtaposed against other competing narratives, such as her mother's 2020 memoir Educating. This essay continues the work done by literary theorists such as Phillipe LeJeune, applies the critical framework developed by Katherine Mack and Johnathan Alexander in their article "The Ethic of Memoir," and encourages the reader to consider the ways in which memoirs are rhetorically acting upon the culture at large through their narrative and emotional aspects.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralThis paper looks at the relationship between memoir and truth in memoirs. Using rhetoric as its basis, it examines memoirs in their contexts using Tara Westover's 2020 memoir Educated as a case study. It looks at the way that memory is used to build narratives, and more specifically, the way that lived personal experiences are represented in the form of the memoir genre. In considering these ideas, this paper explores questions of objective "truth" and how lived experiences can be affected by internal emotional narrative, and by extension, how that emotional narrative is depicted in memoir.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:37751en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/115159en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/en
dc.subjectMemoiren
dc.subjectTruthen
dc.subjectRhetoric of Memoiren
dc.subjectEducateden
dc.subjectEducatingen
dc.subjectTara Westoveren
dc.subjectMimesisen
dc.subjectLife Writingen
dc.subjectCreative Nonfictionen
dc.titleMemoir and Truth: How the Genre Re-frames Realityen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineEnglishen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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