7/2 Readings

Mathis, Frank. The History Teacher - Writing a Memoir: The Involvement of Art with Craft. 19 vols. Society For The History Of Education, 1986.

Slusarczyk, Alison, and Amanda Moses. Our Own Words, 2007-2008 Edition. Talahassee: Florida State University, 2008.

"Naratives from SAC." Project Muse Scholarly Journals Online. Students at the Center. 3 July 2008.


In the article Writing a Memoir: the Involvement of Art with Craft, author Frank Mathis gives readers a brief history of his life and involvement with World War II, gives a few pointers for those interested in writing a memoir, and surmises the benefits involved with memoir writing. However the most noteworthy concept presented is Mathis’ stance that writing memoirs involves the linkage between a “novelist’s art and historian’s craft.” Historians are typically trained to look back on history and critique it, yet when attempting to write a memoir they are faced with an intriguing challenge in how to criticize themselves. Mathis also says that writing memoirs benefits the author. In Mathis’ case, many WWII veterans who read his memoir sent him letters regarding the text.

Florida State University publishes Our Own Words which is a collection of narratives written by their college students. These stories are very interesting, and shed much light on how to write a proper, reader friendly memoir. In the first narrative Sing with Me Somehow by Alison Slusarczyk, Slusarczyk tells the story of a trying period in her teenage years and how singing with the family and playing the piano made situations more bearable. In the second narrative Far From Wonderland by Amanda Moses, the author makes ties between today’s deteriorating society and the old fairy tale Alice in Wonderland.

Similar to Our Own Words, Narratives from SAC is a compilation of stories written by college students at Clemson University. These memoirs are about the involvement of the authors with Hurricane Katrina. The narratives cover many different aspects of the disaster such as education in New Orleans after the disaster, family suffering, and personal stories of terror and trauma.

In reaction to Frank Mathis’ article, I believe that the connection between a historian and artist is of utmost importance when writing a memoir. I found the article extremely interesting and thought the text brought to the table many very important points that need to be taken into consideration when starting the writing process. The college students at FSU are clearly talented in their approach to narrative writing. The most intriguing aspect of the articles I read from their postings was the use of profanity in dialogue. This point was also mentioned in Mathis’ article. The use of profanity makes the conversation very realistic and allows the reader to more easily envision the scene taking place. As well, the narratives from the students at Clemson were equally interesting. It is always enlightening to read of others experiences and try to relate to them. The different articles brought various pieces of the puzzle that was Katrina together to make the situation easier for outsiders, or those not familiar with the disaster, to understand.

If I had to pose three questions to the authors, I would ask Frank Mathis how long it took to realize that you must be an artist and historian at the same time when writing memoirs. I would also ask him if he’d ever read a memoir written by someone who had not made that connection, and if it was as good a narrative. I would ask Alison Slusarczyk if she thought that dialogue should be used sparingly in a memoir or if it should take center stage, as it seemed to in her narrative.