Reflections on Memoir as a New Genre

The article opens with a brief overview of memoir writing in Ireland, with special reference to early twentieth-century regional memoirs in the Irish language. The validity of the view that memoirs are much more numerous now than in the past is assessed. Various categories of memoir are described, as is the relationship between fiction, autobiography, and memoir. Finally, the author recounts her own experience of writing a memoir after many decades of writing fiction. She comments on the relationship of fiction and memoir in her own writing experience, and on differences between the genres as regards process, publication, and reaction.