Memoir and Truth: How the Genre Re-frames Reality

This 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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Department dc:contributor.department

English

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Young, Collen

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Webster, Travis

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cassinelli, Silas M.
• Reed, Ashley

• Memoir
• Truth
• Rhetoric of Memoir
• Educated
• Educating
• Tara Westover
• Mimesis
• Life Writing
• Creative Nonfiction

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:37751

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115159