Jordan, Mostafa, Yi Rong, Akshat, Drew

Celebrity Memoirs

Hillary Clinton
Amy Schumer
50 Cent
Angelina Jolie
Ray Lewis

(I Feel)

(PenzeyMoog)

What is a memoir?
A memoir is the re-creation of particular
experiences which memoirists draw from
their moments of lived experience.

Types of memoir?

Video
Books
Audio Songs
(Youre Writing)

(Trimbur 125)

Mocking Bird-Eminem (Audio Memoir)

(Mockingbird)

Analysis of Song Memoir

Eminem raps about struggle to success

Ill never forget that Christmas, I sat up the whole night cryin
Every house that we lived in either kept gettin broken
into and robbed or shot up on the block

Provides new story about pre-fame life

Evokes sympathy

Very solemn tone

Intended audience for memoirs

Not Everybody

Memoirs can be for the writer's personal use

Memoirs have a specific audience depending on writers experiences

A narrow focus for an audience is crucial

Freedom Writers Diary Scene

(Freedom Writers)

Analysis of video memoir

Experiences taken from each student's memoir

Perspective based on their different backgrounds

Constantly referring to this racial war

Question why they are in this situation

Serious and Emotional Tone

Unlike narrative, Memoirs come to a conclusion

Characteristics of a memoir

A memory; often episodic-meaningful moments

Written in the first person

Written in a narrative structure

Reveals the feelings of the writer

Has meaning; reflective

Focused on one event; - one point in the authors life

About the authors experience more than about the event itself

(Kirby Dan)

Elie Wiesels Night

Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out,
swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing...
And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes.
And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still
red, his eyes not yet extinguished.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
"For God's sake, where is God?"
And from within me, I heard a voice answer:
"Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..."
(Night)
That night, the soup tasted of corpses.
(Wiesel)

Analysis

Ellie Wiesels memoir on the holocaust

Very Grim and Serious Tone

Serious themes included

Writers loss of Faith Depicted

Reflecting on the incident

A personal perspective on the Holocaust

Purpose (write a memoir that matters)

Memoir writing can be therapeutic. Writing your way through a difficult period of life, or writing about the
learning of a challenging life lesson can help put the experience into perspective.

Memoirs can provide teaching moments. A good memoir focuses on an event or series of events that evoke
a change in the author perhaps a change of view, a change of feelings, a change for better (or worse.)

Memoirs provide for personal sharing, for keeping certain moments alive in memory. This sharing need not
be for a large audience; the writing may only be written for family members or friends. It may be a way of
documenting a part of their lives, too.

Provoke emotion

Connect present and past

(Trimbur 125)

How to write a memoir

Recall a very specific story in your life.

story is intriguing/meaningful

Not your average kind of day

Be sure to use all of your senses.

Be sure to include how the event affected you,

What emotions did this event make you feel?

How did you react or why didn't you react?

(Kita Joe)

Subgenres

Celebrity, athletic, political or public figure

Ill take you there memoirs

Travel

I will survive memoirs

Spiritual

Love and romance

Food

Family, friendship, and business

Grief

Farmsteading

Workplace or career

Mommy Dearest/Growing up dysfunctional

Exploration or adventure

Escape from religious extremism

Addiction/recovery memoirs

Humor

(Swenson Book Development)

relationships

Food memoir
I know now, of course, that La Pyramide, even in 1966, was the center of the
culinary universe. Bocuse, Troisgros, everybody had done their time there,
making their bones under the legendarily fearsome proprietor, Ferdinand
Point. Point was the Grand Master of cuisine at the time, and La Pyramide was
Mecca for foodies. This was a pilgrimage for my earnestly francophile parents.
In some small way, I got that through my tiny, empty skull in the back of the
sweltering parked car, even then. Things changed. I changed after that. First of
all, I was furious. Spite, always a great motivating force in my life, caused me
to become suddenly adventurous where food was concerned. I decided then
and there to outdo my foodie parents. At the same time, I could gross out my
still uninitiated little brother. I'd show them who the gourmet was!
(Bourdain)

Analysis of food memoir activity

Story?

Audience?

Diction?

What type of personal description is used?

How the writers feel?

What emotion has been provoked?

Story: Bourdain describes the point which he decided to become a chef

Audience: Fans

Diction: Introspective

What type of personal description is used: French words/ vivid descriptions of

different people

How the writers feel: Reflective

What emotion has been provoked: Emotional empathy

What makes this a memoir?

Adventure memoir
The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so
profound to me that summerand yet also, like most things, so very
simplewas how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing
I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it
down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay. As I clung
to the chaparral that day, attempting to patch up my bleeding finger,
terrified by every sound that the bull was coming back, I considered my
options. There were only two and they were essentially the same. I
could go back in the direction I had come from, or I could go forward in
the direction I intended to go.

(Strayed)

Analysis of adventure memoir

Story about Cheryl Strayed hike on the Pacific Crest Trail

Emotional ( coming to terms with her life)

Serious tone

Motivating

Mixed feelings ( happy and sad)

Class Activity

Work Citations
Baker, Donna. "Genre Study: Teaching Memoir Writing." Web Pages 4 Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web.
Bourdain, Anthony. "First Course." Kitchen Confidential. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
Bourdain, Anthony. "Kitchen Confidential Adventures In The ..." Kitchen Confidential Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly by Anthony
<http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=20465274694&searchurl=tn%3Dkitchen%2Bconfidential%26sortby%3D17%26an%3Danthony%2
Bbourdain%26pics%3Don#&gid=1&pid=1>.
Bourdain: Bloomsbury, N Y 9781582340821 Hardcover. Bloomsbury, N Y, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
By Sticking a Couple Music Video Actors in the Nominations Reduces the Weight the Nominations Carry among Peers. If the Nomination Means Nothing, the
Win Becomes Nothing More than Political, Which Kills the Awarding of the Art Form by Peers. "CJ's Corner." CJs Corner. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Cheryl Strayed (Goodreads. "Wild." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
Freedom Writers. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2007. Youtube Clip.
"Freedom Writers (Full Screen Edition)." Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
<https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Writers-Screen-Hilary-Swank/dp/B000NOK1KM>.
Kirby, Dan. "Contemporary Memoir: A 21st-Century Genre Ideal for Teens."Proquest.com. N.p., Mar. 2010. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
<http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.neu.edu/docview/237305235?accountid=12826&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo>.

Kita, Joe. "Great Tips on How to Write Your Memoir | Reader's Digest."Readers Digest. TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS, INC, 16 Apr. 2016. Web. 12
Oct. 2016.
Mockingbird Official Music Video. Perf. Eminem. Youtube.com. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9bCLPwzSC0>.
"Night by Elie Wiesel Book Review." Faheem Hussain. Ed. FaheemHus. N.p., 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
<https://faheemabdmominhussain.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/night-by-elie-wiesel-book-review/>.
PenzeyMoog, Caitlin. "Amy Schumer Gets Surprisingly Poignant in Her Hilarious, Brutal Memoir." The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo Amy
Schumer Book Review Book Review The A.V. Club. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
By Ray Lewis (Author), {"isAjaxComplete_B000APMXVE":"0","isAjaxInProgress_B000APMXVE":"0"} Daniel Paisner (Author) Visit
Amazon's Daniel Paisner Page Find All the Books, Read about the Author, and More. See Search Results for This Author Are You an
Author? Learn about Author Central Daniel Paisner (Author). "I Feel Like Going On: Life, Game, and Glory Hardcover October 20,
2015." Amazon.com: I Feel Like Going On: Life, Game, and Glory (9781501112355): Ray Lewis, Daniel Paisner: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 16
Oct. 2016.
reedsyhq. "Writing Memoir: Tips for Finding Your Memoir's Theme." The Reedsy Blog. N.p., 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
<https://blog.reedsy.com/writing-memoir-tips-for-finding-your-memoirs-theme-by-julia-scheeres>.
Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. Print.
Trimbur, John. The Call to Write. 6th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. Print. "The Many Subgenres of Memoir." Swenson Book Development. N.p.,
30 Mar. 2013. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. <http://www.swensonbookdevelopment.com/blog/2013/the-many-subgenres-of-memoir/>. "Youre
Writing A Memoir?" The Art of Stories. N.p., 08 June 2015. Web. 12 Oct. 2016. <http://art-of-stories.com/youre-writing-a-memoir/>.
("Youre Writing A Memoir?") The Art of Stories. N.p., 08 June 2015. Web. 12
Zinsser, William. "How to Write a Memoir: Be Yourself, Speak Freely, and Think Small." The American Scholar 75.2 (2006): 109-17. JSTOR. Web.
5 Oct. 2016.c