Memoirs are Not Completely True Essay -- Memoir Literature

Memoirs are a Challenging Sources for Attaining the TruthMemoirs have become an increasingly popular genre of literature. In light of notonly their popularity but their influence on the audiences who read them, it isimportant for readers to consider the various motivations and influences that shapethe narrative and the details of these stories. This is especially professedly of memoirsthat are intended to educate the public on the instances of human rights abuse, insituations when the general public may know little else about the subject. Whensuch a book is published with the intention of informing the public and galvanizingsupport for human rights, the author may have even more of an obligation to wooden legto the facts than he or she would if the purpose of the book were solelyentertainment. This concern will be of particular interest to the readers of theDeans Book selection for expunge 2006, The Aquariums of Pyongyang, a memoir writtenby a North Korean defector with the intent ion of exposing the human rights abusein the North Korean political relations systematic use of enforced hard labor camps onits people. This memoir and others like it are extremely effective in spreadingknowingness of human rights violations. At the same time, however, the reader mustbe aware of numerous factors that shape and complicate the story that is told.According to Kay Schaffer, author of Conjunctions Life Narratives in the Field of valet de chambre Rights, there is a growing market in America for books marketed asmemoirs. Writers such as Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking constitute ofStaggering Genius, and David Sedaris, author of numerous short story collectionsthat are based on his life experiences, have helped propel the memoir genr... ...(Fall 2000) 543-559.05 March U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Hidden Gulag, The ExposingNorth Koreas Prison Camps. Ed. Richard Hawk. 2003. 16 FebWalker, Barbara. On Reading Soviet Memoirs A History of the Contempo rariesGenre as an Institution of Russian Intelligentsia Culture from the 1790s tothe 1970s. Russian Review. 59.3 (July 2000) 327-352. 05 MarchWatson, Jinx Stapleton. Reading Memoir to Make Sense of Sensitive HistoriesCivil Rights endeavour (USA), Apartheid South Africa & Cultural Revolution(China). 22 Feb Wyatt, Edward. Live on Oprah, a Memoirist Is Kicked Out of the Book Club. TheNew York Times. 27 January 2006 A1. 05 March com