Memoir
Having just finished a 5,000-word autobiographical feminist criticism of Willa Cather, my mind is reeling from the possibility of actually approaching writing from the position of the memoir. Although I have always done so to some extent or another - relating my own experiences in context to my subject's - I have never imagined it to be a legitimate form of narrative. In my mind there have always been only two genres by which to approach writing: fiction or non-fiction, and memoir falls into the non-fiction category, with no particular substantive expertise required.
However, the feminist memoir or cultural memoir can encompass personal history within the context of time and sociological sub-groupings in a more structured framework. The addition of the personal narrative is seen as the "new" contemporary feminist theory of critical analysis. Good storytelling is paramount in any genre - from journalism to folk songwriting to novels; narcissistic expression for it's own sake is not the idea here. Weaving stories within stories in an autobiographical or memoiristic fashion unveils the cryptic nature of fiction and criticism. It grounds it.
The 17th century writer, Mary Wroth, was ahead of her time in this genre with her The Countess of Montgomeries's Urania. If we rely on the patriarchal "experts" of that time, Ben Jonson and William Drummond considered Wroth a peer and her uncle, Sir Philip Sidney, was certainly one of her first inspirations. Wroth was eventually shunned as a writer, despite her genius and her distinction as being the first woman to publish prose fiction. Her own "truth" stories were inter-weaved throughout the Urania and included masked male literary figures of the time who took issue with these showings from the eyes (and pen) of a woman. They proved much too revealing of the harsh treatment of women in the throes of patriarchal society. Wroth was silenced for 100 years until being discovered again by feminist critics looking for definitive role models in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
There's something eerily similar between Wroth and Cather; their approaches to writing have a common ring I need to explore further.
The memoir as analytical theory brings me back to one of my original personal descriptors; I used to say I have a "self-centered world view," meaning that if I can improve myself, I am improving the world. I am feeling myself thrown back thirty years here and wondering if we aren't just getting caught up in another cyclical rediscovery with this notion of memoir as legitimate theoretical narrative. If we are bringing something new to the table, then we are making progress. But, just to move one step to the left or right does not a new perspective make. We are still on the same plane. To advance the understanding of humanity as a whole, we must pick ourselves up and view it differently, from underneath or above - changing the plane entirely. This is, of course, if our intent is to contribute to the overall understanding of humanity or to present an entirely new narrative.
Alternately, if what we want is to tell our own story in relation to humanity's, then the memoir is an excellent model. It may not change the world, but possibly, will create an opening for a select few, and will likely engender a sense of personal satisfaction.
If that translates to joy, then it all comes down to "just living" as enough of an end in itself, and not the changing, or optimizing, of that living as most important. And that is a subject for another entry.
