RADIO: Interview 'Memoir: A History' by Ben Yagoda
Ben Yagoda is a leading writer / teacher in the creative non-fiction genre. On NPR's "On the Media" Mr. Yagoda was interviewed about his new book Memoir: A History
The whole interview is about 15 minutes long and it traces the roots of the genre from The Confessions of Saint Augustine to Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States?
In English classes - This is great listening for students when your talking about the boundaries, rules and conventions of genre.
In Social Studies classes - this is great listening if you want to discuss the nature of "reality" and "truth" in historical contexts.
My favorite part of the interview is when he talks about the "fake memoir" that started the genre...
BROOKE GLADSTONE: You note that one of the most influential memoirs of all time, one that set the template for generations, was actually explicitly fiction. I will read the first sentence. “I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise and, leaving his trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called – nay, we now call ourselves and write out name – Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.”
BEN YAGODA: Oh, I want to hear more. That is great.
[BROOKE LAUGHS]
Daniel Defoe - oh boy, what a writer. Yeah, and Robinson Crusoe was in the form of an autobiography, totally made up out of whole cloth, though there was a real person that it was based on. But at this time, in the 1700s, there was no labels. There was no nonfiction bestseller list. There was no memoir section of the store. It just came out as a book, and people honestly didn't know what to make of it. Some people were fooled and then got really mad when they found out that it was fiction.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: But how did he influence the creation of true chronicles?
BEN YAGODA: Well, that’s an amazing thing. I mean, he wrote a series of books, Moll Flanders, Robinson Crusoe and several others that were novels in the form of autobiography, and the success of these novels actually influenced people to write real autobiographies.
Transcript, etc. can be found at: http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/12/18/07
The whole interview is about 15 minutes long and it traces the roots of the genre from The Confessions of Saint Augustine to Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States?
In English classes - This is great listening for students when your talking about the boundaries, rules and conventions of genre.
In Social Studies classes - this is great listening if you want to discuss the nature of "reality" and "truth" in historical contexts.
My favorite part of the interview is when he talks about the "fake memoir" that started the genre...
BROOKE GLADSTONE: You note that one of the most influential memoirs of all time, one that set the template for generations, was actually explicitly fiction. I will read the first sentence. “I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise and, leaving his trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called – nay, we now call ourselves and write out name – Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.”
BEN YAGODA: Oh, I want to hear more. That is great.
[BROOKE LAUGHS]
Daniel Defoe - oh boy, what a writer. Yeah, and Robinson Crusoe was in the form of an autobiography, totally made up out of whole cloth, though there was a real person that it was based on. But at this time, in the 1700s, there was no labels. There was no nonfiction bestseller list. There was no memoir section of the store. It just came out as a book, and people honestly didn't know what to make of it. Some people were fooled and then got really mad when they found out that it was fiction.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: But how did he influence the creation of true chronicles?
BEN YAGODA: Well, that’s an amazing thing. I mean, he wrote a series of books, Moll Flanders, Robinson Crusoe and several others that were novels in the form of autobiography, and the success of these novels actually influenced people to write real autobiographies.
Transcript, etc. can be found at: http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/12/18/07
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