Artful Truths
The Philosophy of Memoir
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- $35.99
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- $35.99
Publisher Description
Offers a philosophical perspective on the nature and value of writing a memoir.
Artful Truths offers a concise guide to the fundamental philosophical questions that arise when writing a literary work about your own life. Bringing a philosopher’s perspective to a general audience, Helena de Bres addresses what a memoir is, how the genre relates to fiction, memoirists’ responsibilities to their readers and subjects, and the question of why to write a memoir at all. Along the way, she delves into a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of the self, the limits of knowledge, the idea of truth, the obligations of friendship, the relationship between morality and art, and the question of what makes a life meaningful.
Written in a clear and conversational style, it offers a resource for those who write, teach, and study memoirs, as well as those who love to read them. With a combination of literary and philosophical knowledge, de Bres takes the many challenges directed at memoirists seriously, while ultimately standing in defense of a genre that, for all its perplexities—and maybe partly because of them—continually proves to be both beloved and valuable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Philosopher de Bres responds to "a common set of criticisms that have been lobbed at memoirists over the centuries" in her disappointing debut. De Bres first explores what memoir is, defining it as "a nonfiction account of the author's own past life" before considering and shooting down the claim that all memoir is fiction. She then considers ethical concerns of the genre and its potential for harming others: "When people treat something fictional as nonfictional," she writes, "serious injuries can result." While these matters are well worth examining, de Bres tends to state the obvious: in discussing the relationship between language and truth, for example, she notes that Shakespeare's "Juliet is the sun" or Robert Burns's "my love is like a red, red rose" are "not true or false in the way we usually use those terms." Despite an earnest attempt to make a philosophical study accessible to a broad audience, de Bres fails to deliver revelation and instead leaves the reader with bromides about how memoirists should practice their craft: "I think there's a strong argument... in favor of memoirists adopting a general policy of respecting the historical truth." Memoirists may enjoy these intellectual wrestlings, but for the most this will come up short.
