Description
Book SynopsisFor those that have mastered the basics of memoir and wish to probe this brand of creative nonfiction further,
Writing the Radical Memoir uses salient theories about memory and the self to challenge assumptions about how we remember and tell the truth of our lives when we write about it. Innovative in approach and making new critical ideas accessible, each chapter maps out the key principles of such writers as Barthes, Lacan, Derrida, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Philippe Le Jeune and Joseph Campbell, invokes literary examples to show how other writers have mastered the idea before reflecting on how you can practically apply the theory to your writing. With original exercises and prompts for further reading that bridge the gap between the theoretical and how it might be put into practice, the book is attentive to the multiple facets of the genre of nonfiction writing generally, covering such topics as: - The writer/ reader contract- How to embark on a thematic/ symbolic exploration of th
Table of ContentsIntroduction: What is radical memoir? Chapter one: The reader/writer contract: how do we write ‘truth’? Chapter two: Memoir as cartography: mapping your life Chapter three: Your life as a hero’s journey Chapter four: Memory and neuroscience Chapter five: Turning real people into characters Chapter six: Writing memoir as decolonial, genre-busting and rule-bending act Chapter seven: Memoir as erasure Chapter eight: Collective memoir: writing with others Chapter nine: Autrebiography Chapter ten: Biographemes Conclusion: The magnificent risk of memoir
