Table Of ContentAMERICAN LITERATURE
READINGS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Series Editor: Linda Wagner-Martin
CONTEMPORARY
AMERICAN
MEMOIRS IN
ACTION
How to Do Things
with Memoir
Jane Danielewicz
American Literature Readings in the 21st Century
Series Editor
Linda Wagner-Martin
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
American Literature Readings in the 21st Century publishes works by
contemporary critics that help shape critical opinion regarding literature
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/series/14765
Jane Danielewicz
Contemporary
American Memoirs
in Action
How to Do Things with Memoir
Jane Danielewicz
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
American Literature Readings in the 21st Century
ISBN 978-3-319-69601-0 ISBN 978-3-319-69602-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69602-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017957827
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For my daughter, Siobhan
For my son, Kiernan, and daughter-in-law, Raven
“Your hopes, dreams, and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take
you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.”
William James
A
cknowledgments
This book is the result of exploring new paths and trying things out in the
company of willing and inspiring partners. My introduction to the field of
life-writing came in the form of a proposal that involved collaboration and
so proved irresistible. Laurie Langbauer suggested we develop and teach a
course together. Her interest in women’s literature coupled with mine in
writing led to the first-year seminar, “Reading and Writing Women’s Lives:
Autobiography, Biography, Autoethnography, and Personal Essay.” I got
hooked on memoir once my students started writing their own, and this
project gradually emerged.
Through a partnership between University of North Carolina (UNC)
and King’s College London, I met Max Saunders, Brian Hurwitz, and
Neil Vickers, and discovered the global network of scholars working in all
genres of life-writing connected to the International Autobiography
Association. I thank them for their many conversations and opportunities
for exchange (and anticipate many others) which supported this book’s
development.
I am grateful to the kind support of many colleagues and friends at UNC,
including Bland Simpson, Beverly Taylor, James Thompson, Mary Floyd-
Wilson, Jennifer Ho, Heidi Kim, Megan Matchinske, Laurie Langbauer,
Hilary Lithgow, Marianne Gingher, Stephanie Elizondo Greist, Daniel
Wallace, Michael Gutierrez, Minrose Gwin, Ruth Salvaggio, and especially
Jordynn Jack. This is only the short list.
Two colleagues in particular were generous advocates and essential to
the eventual publication of this book. Bill Andrews read an early draft of
vii
viii ACKNoWLEDGMENTS
the manuscript, provided comments, and encouraged me to pursue the
project further. Linda Wagner-Martin offered wisdom, pragmatic advice,
and productive strategies about the manuscript overall. Thank you.
At UNC, the members of my Academic Leadership Program 2008
team—Kevin Guskiewicz, Roberto Quercia, Peggye Dilworth-Anderson,
Andy Reynolds, and Beth Grabowski—stayed interested over the years,
shared their stories, and shouted congratulations when the book was
done.
I learned from my talented students at Chapel Hill that having others
who listen is the best way to help someone to move forward with a writing
project. I want to expressly thank all the people who spent many hours
over the years listening to my ideas, expecting that a book would one day
appear. During a rough patch, I hired a book coach, the incomparable
Kathleen Kearns. A book coach is someone who looks at the big picture
and figures out small, achievable tasks for the writer that add up to a fin-
ished project. While slower than most, I got there eventually, thanks to
Kathleen.
Heartfelt thanks go to Julia Wood who spent a whole summer meeting
weekly at the Spotted Dog listening as I talked about the chapters I was
writing. She believed I would finish them and I did. Judy Farquhar, back
in Chapel Hill one year, reconstituted a mini version of our famous writing
group with Joy Kasson and April Masten. They kept asking to see my writ-
ing and, while I didn’t share much, I enjoyed reading their brilliant drafts
and kept writing steadily, knowing they cared.
Parts of the book were written in the oak tree–shaded house of Sarah
Stadler and Zach Cowan whenever I turned up in Berkeley. Sarah was in
essence my first and best listener. My research notebooks are full of “let-
ters to Sarah” where I tried out my thinking about various memoirs in
early drafts.
My old friend Daniel Hayes has perfect timing and an eye for beautiful
writing. At a critical juncture, he offered to read the full manuscript and
gave me just the right amount of feedback in just the right way. He made
the book so much better. Any imperfections, errors, infelicitous sentences,
or fuzzy ideas that remain are all mine.
My sincere thanks to Allie Bochicchio, editor, and Emily Janakiram,
editorial assistant, at Palgrave who were smart, thoughtful, and very effi-
cient. What a pleasure it has been to work with them. I thank the readers
of the manuscript who were as kind in their critique as in their praise.
ACKNoWLEDGMENT S ix
Lynn York, Megan Matchinske, and Jennifer Ho are true friends, the
ones who know everything about you and still love you. Thanks for hours
of conversation, consolation, and exaltation. I look forward to more time
and more joy with you.
My whole family breathed a collective sigh of relief once the book was
finished and space opened up for new projects. No one has been more
impatient yet more fiercely proud on my behalf as my daughter Siobhan.
She has been my inspiration looking forward and also the steady wind at
my back. My son Kiernan and daughter-in-law Raven remained positive
and optimistic, knowing from their theater company how difficult it is to
sustain long-term creative projects.
My husband, John—as he confessed recently—really wasn’t helpful for
a long time with this book and then suddenly he was. He couldn’t imagine
what might help me until it became obvious. Throughout it all, I knew he
loved me so it was just a matter of loving him back, of waiting, wishing,
and, as William James advises, letting my dreams become airborne.
To one and all, my gratitude and love.
July 31, 2017
Chapel Hill
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
2 Reflecting 21
3 Voicing 39
4 Reckoning 59
5 Advocating 77
6 Witnessing 97
7 Coda 113
Works Cited 121
Index 127
xi
