INTERVIEW with MITCHELL S. JACKSON
According to the literary critic, poet, professor Stephanie Burt, in the 2011 book titled Memoir: An Introduction, the scholar G. Thomas Couser argues that “we go to the genre not so much for detail or style as for “wisdom and self-knowledge,” for what the main character, who is always the author, has learned, which is, of course, true.” However, I would like to also add that the structural design within memoir, the scaffolding of narrative, the ways in which presentation matters or should matter, is what’s most important for an effective memoir, especially memoirs that waver between suffering and redemption. I don’t know if suffering is necessary for redemption, but in order to have been redeemed one most have done something to create a need for redemption, and the way in which that story is told can have a huge impact on the reader. Read More
