Memoir

Ben Yagoda is a journalism professor in the English department at the University of Delaware. He is the author of Will Rogers: A Biography; When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It; The Sound on the Page; The Art of Fact; and About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made. His articles have appeared in Slate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Book Review, Stop Smiling, and other publications. Yagoda lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two daughters.

出版者:Penguin Group (USA)

作者:Ben Yagoda

页数:304

出版时间:2009

价格:$ 25.95

isbn号码:9781594488863

图书标签:非小说类社会学传记

From a critically acclaimed cultural and literary critic, a definitive history and analysis of the memoir.

From Saint Augustine's Confessions to Augusten Burroughs's Running with Scissors, from Julius Caesar to Ulysses Grant, from Mark Twain to David Sedaris, the art of memoir has had a fascinating life, and deserves its own biography. Cultural and literary critic Ben Yagoda traces the memoir from its birth in early Christian writings and Roman generals' journals all the way up to the banner year of 2007, which saw memoirs from and about dogs, rock stars, bad dads, good dads, alternadads, waitresses, George Foreman, Iranian women, and a slew of other illustrious persons (and animals). In a time when memoir seems ubiquitous and is still highly controversial, Yagoda tackles the autobiography and memoir in all its forms and iterations. He discusses the fraudulent memoir and provides many examples from the past梐nd addresses the ramifications and consequences of these books. Spanning decades and nations, styles and subjects, he analyzes the hallmark memoirs of the Western tradition桼ousseau, Ben Franklin, Henry Adams, Gertrude Stein, Edward Gibbon, among others. Yagoda also describes historical trends, such as Native American captive memoirs, slave narratives, courtier dramas (where one had to pay to NOT be included in a courtesan's memoir). Throughout, the idea of memory and truth, how we remember and how well we remember lives, is intimately explored.

Yagoda's elegant examination of memoir is at once a history of literature and taste, and an absorbing glimpse into what humans find interesting梠ne another.

读后感

我一直觉得自己是不爱看回忆录和传记的人，毕竟我的乔布斯传买了八年还停留在十页的进度。但其实按照这本书的定义，我看的不 少书都算是回忆录，例如去年大热的《你当像鸟飞往你的山 》，《乡下人的悲歌》和《我是个妈妈，我需要铂金包》等等。 果然，回忆录和传记撑起了美国非...  

我一直觉得自己是不爱看回忆录和传记的人，毕竟我的乔布斯传买了八年还停留在十页的进度。但其实按照这本书的定义，我看的不 少书都算是回忆录，例如去年大热的《你当像鸟飞往你的山 》，《乡下人的悲歌》和《我是个妈妈，我需要铂金包》等等。 果然，回忆录和传记撑起了美国非...