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Literature vocabulary · Genres and Forms

Memoir

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈmemwɑː/nounCommon term

In literature, memoir means: A nonfiction book in which the author writes about personal memories of a particular period, experience or theme in his or her life.

In Turkish: anı, hatırat, anı kitabı

How it is used

Very popular in publishing and book clubs: a childhood memoir, a war memoir, a food memoir. Memoir focuses on selected experiences and emotional truth, while autobiography tries to cover a whole life. 'Memoirs' (plural) often refers to the recollections of public figures.

Example sentences

  1. Her memoir describes growing up between two languages in a small Anatolian town.

  2. Is the book a memoir or an autobiographical novel?

Common collocations

  • write a memoir
  • childhood memoir
  • war memoir
  • publish a memoir
  • memoir writing
  • autobiographyAn account of a person's whole life, or most of it, written by that person, usually in the first person and in chronological order.
  • nonfictionWriting about real people, events and facts, such as biographies, memoirs, essays, history and travel books.
  • first-person narratorA narrator who is a character in the story and tells it using 'I', so readers see events only through that character's eyes.
  • authorThe person who wrote a particular book, poem, play or other text.

More terms: Genres and Forms

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