Memory & narrative
Subtitle: the weave of life-writing
By: James Olney.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 430
Subjects: Autobiography -- Authorship; Autobiographical memory; Narration (Rhetoric)
Other titles: Memory and narrative
Description: At a time when the memoir has never been more popular, Memory and Narrative presents an account of how the weave of life-writing has altered over time to arrive at its present form. James Olney, tells the story of an evolving literary form that originated in the autobiographical writings of St. Augustine, underwent profound and disruptive changes in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's life-writing trilogy, and found its momentary conclusion in the body of Samuel Beckett's work.

Among other issues, Olney considers the rejection of the pronoun "I" by many post-Rousseau writers; the uses of narrative in the works of Beckett, Franz Kafka, and the sculptor Alberto Giacometti, and the role of literary memory in light of recent "memory work" from a variety of scientific disciplines. Giambattista Vico, Henry Adams, Gertrude Stein, Richard Wright, and Christa Wolf are some of the many writers examined in this monumental study.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.