#MEMOIR VS BIOGRAPHY FULL#

A memoir is a look at a specific period from the writer’s life, or a sequence of specific periods that have thematic links. Both are just chatting about yourself, right?īoth forms may indeed be chatting about oneself, but there is a difference between a memoir and an autobiography. Reading the memoir definition, you may be wondering what exactly makes it different from an autobiography. You can learn more about who Thoreau was in the video below. These include living on your own to identifying plant life around him, among many other things.

Focusing on the two years, two months, and two days the author spent in a cabin, the memoir has Thoreau cover many subjects. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is one of the most popular and well-known memoir examples in literature.

#MEMOIR VS BIOGRAPHY FULL#

While these centuries were full of memoirs written by privileged politicians or aristocrats, there was at least one that broke the mold a bit. The 18th and 19th centuries brought us closer to what we could consider more modern examples of memoirs. Some of these included Sarashina Nikki of the Japanese Heian period (8th to 12th century) there were also several European memoir examples from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Thus, in these early examples, we can see both the personal and historical reasons for jotting down one’s specific memories.Īs time went on, other people, be them important politicians or simply chroniclers of their era, were writing memoirs. While serving as memoirs, they also serve as historical records, which is something many other memoirs end up being.

Memoir vs biography