Memory and Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing | National Humanities Center

Work of the Fellows: Monographs

Memory and Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing

By James Olney (NHC Fellow, 1980–81)

Memory; Narrative; Literary History; Autobiography

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998

From the publisher’s description:

Memory and Narrative presents an elegant, authoritative account of how life-writing has changed over time to arrive at its present form. James Olney, one of the most distinguished scholars of autobiography, tells the story of an evolving literary form that originated in the autobiographical writings of St. Augustine, underwent profound changes in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s life-writing trilogy, and found a momentary conclusion in the work of Samuel Beckett.

Awards and Prizes
Christian Gauss Award (1999)
Subjects
Literary Theory / Literary Criticism / Memory / Narrative / Literary History / Autobiography /

Olney, James (NHC Fellow, 1980–81). Memory and Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.