Memoir Controversy: Does Gender Matter?
My friend Sonia, who is doing a fantastic job of blogging about her experience as an expatriate in many different countries (check out http://gutsywriter.blogspot.com) and who has written a memoir about taking her family, including three teenage sons, to Belize for a year, sent me the following link. Apparently, the life stories of women and those of men still have some hidden master narratives which allow for a wider range of sins for men than for women.
Here is one writer’s analysis of sexism in memoir review and publishing: http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-was-watching-30-rock-where.html
Does she convince you? I did not read any of the memoirs reviewed here, so I can’t weigh in, but I find the thesis believable.
Posted in Memoir Controversies
Really like that blog post by Jennifer Weiner (who's a good chick lit writer). Haven't read all the books she mentioned either, but I suspect there's a lot of truth in what she says. Redemption narratives . . . I've heard a similar criticism of Joseph Campbell's work on myth but haven't read it yet either. Hate The Alchemist for this reason–soooo sexist.
Really like that blog post by Jennifer Weiner (who's a good chick lit writer). Haven't read all the books she mentioned either, but I suspect there's a lot of truth in what she says. Redemption narratives . . . I've heard a similar criticism of Joseph Campbell's work on myth but haven't read it yet either. Hate The Alchemist for this reason–soooo sexist.