Memory and Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing [Hardcover]

James Olney (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226628167 | ISBN-13: 978-0226628165 | Publication Date: January 15, 1999 | Edition: 1

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.

"This is an elegant work of scholarship." —Jason Berry, Chicago Tribune

"Examines how the fascinating, reciprocal relationship between memory and narrative has evolved over the course of 17 centuries. . . . Olney's work is a valuable companion to his subjects' primary texts." —Booklist

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These studies of autobiographical writing approach the topic from different angles. Bjorklund, a social scientist, analyzes the genre from the perspectives of psychology, sociology, and ethnic studies. She has selected five representative titles from each decade starting from 1800 and examines them from in terms of how the concept of self has changed in U.S. history and society. She divides the book into four sections: religious autobiographies, the works of business or "self-made" individuals, the psychological aspects of life-writing, and ways in which society and the environment have molded lives. Bjorklund studies both famous and obscure writers, and her clear prose style and copious quotations provide insight into the many aspects of the changing American self. Olney is a professor of literature (Louisiana State Univ.) and is therefore more interested in how certain authors have made narrative out of memory. He focuses on three landmark autobiographers: St. Augustine, one of the first life-writers, who used his life to illustrate religious doctrines; Rousseau, who was only interested in how his own feelings and thoughts made an impact on society; and Samuel Beckett, who invested his novels and plays with his own, ultimately hopeless quest to understand his life story. Olney's analyses are complex, but his exhaustive readings of these three main authors illuminate their methods and struggles. Bjorklund's study is appropriate for undergraduate collections, while Olney's is geared for graduate studies.?Morris Hounion, NYC Technical Coll. Lib., Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

In his monumental study of the European tradition of life-writing, Olney traces the dialectic of autobiography from the early Middle Ages through the Enlightenment to postmodernism, focusing on St. Augustine, Rouseau, and Beckett and drawing on a range of personalities including Montaigne, Vico, Stein, Kafka, and Giacometti. As the first autobiographical writing in the West, St. Augustine's Confessions and Trinity established a long-lasting literary canon that would be challenged only 13 centuries later by Rousseau's trilogy: Confessions, Dialogues, and Reveries. While St. Augustine adopted past events as his subject matter, Rousseau tended to recount feelings about events rather than the events themselves. St. Augustine used the story of his long journey to God to present an exposition of Christian doctrine, while Rousseau intended to teach others self-knowledge by communicating his own vulnerabilities and emotions and inviting the reader to feel the same. In featuring himself as a model, Rousseau indulged in self-praise, transforming St. Augustine's confession into apologia. Another cardinal shift effected by Rousseau and passed along to latter-day writers was fragmentation of the ``I'' and skepsis about the adequacy of language for life-writing. A prominent inheritor of the autobiographical tradition, Beckett declared the whole enterprise impossible, based on a postmodern doubt of reason, cohesive narrative, and the unified voice. In Krapp's Last Tape, The Unnamable, and other works, Beckett wrote specifically on the life-writer's failure to account for the past in any objective way. Mixing the first and third person, Beckett's narrators reminisce about their prior acts of memory, incapable either of pinning down the original event or completing their narrative. Detached from reality and trapped in incessant self-referentiality, the memory of postmodern writers signs a death sentence to the genre of autobiography. Olney's study is full of insights. It is regrettable, however, that it takes great effort to cut through the author's dry academic style and convoluted syntax to reap the benefits of his solid research and excellent analysis. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 446 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (January 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226628167
• ISBN-13: 978-0226628165
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,918,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely well-written, November 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Memory and Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing (Paperback)

The reviewer from Kirkus must have read this book through eyeglasses smeared with vaseline. Olney's prose is a model of clarity, which is wonderful, because what he has to say is utterly absorbing and interesting.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderfully erudite study of the history of life-writing, September 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Memory and Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing (Hardcover)

This is a wonderfully wide-ranging and learned exploration of the history of life-writing. Olney's style is always lucid, elegant, and patient; he reads subtly and well, teasing meaning out of passages in Augustine, Rousseau, and Beckett that you might have thought were tapped out by now.