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:For the album by Ashlee Simpson, see Autobiography (album)In a sense, autobiography is a form of biography, the writing of a life story. The difference, of course, is point of view: an autobiography is from the viewpoint of its subject. Biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints; an autobiography may be based entirely on the writer's memory. A name for such a work in Antiquity was an apologia , essentially more self-justification than introspection. John Henry Newman's autobiography is his Apologia pro vita sua. Augustine applied the title Confessions to his autobiographical work (and Jean-Jacques Rousseau took up the same title). The pagan rhetor Libanius framed his life memoir as one of his orations, not the public kind, but the literary kind that would be read aloud in the privacy of one's study.
A memoir is slightly different from an autobiography. Where an autobiography focuses on the "life and times" of the character, a memoir has a narrower, more intimate focus on his or her own memories, feelings and emotions.
For example, the autobiography of an American Civil War general might include sections on the nature of slavery, the origins of the Civil War, and the political career of Abraham Lincoln. But the memoir of a Civil War general would focus on his personal reasons for joining the battle, the effect of the war on his mind and soul, and the joy and fear he felt on the battlefield.
Modern memoirs are often based on old diaries, letters, and photographA photograph (often just called a photo is an image (or a representation of that on e. paper) created by collecting and focusing electromagnetic radiation. The most common photographs are those created of visible wavelengths, producing permanent records os.
Until the last 20 years or so, few people without some degree of fame tried to write and publish a memoir. But with the critical and commercial success of such memoirs as " Angela's AshesAngela's Ashes is a memoir by Frank McCourt, and tells the story of his childhood. He was born in the USA, but his parents moved back to their native Ireland because of a lack of money. Life in Ireland, and specifically life in Limerick City, in the '30s" and " The Color of Water ," more and more people have been encouraged to try their hand at this genre.
See also
- Autobiographical novelAn autobiographical novel is a novel based on the life of the author. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. A further distancing from real events is sometimes called a semi-autobiograp
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