FILE PHOTO： Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée by Simone de Beauvoir

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When discussing literature, people tend to think of novels, poetry, drama, and other forms of fiction. However, memoirs—works that recount personal experiences and observations—are also widely popular among readers. In the West, memoirs have a storied and enduring tradition. Though ancient China did not explicitly use the term “memoir,” it too possessed a deep-rooted tradition of documenting one’s past. Over the course of the 20th century, sweeping historical changes, increasingly complex identity awareness, and a vibrant cultural marketplace have all contributed to the global rise of memoirs. Despite their widespread appeal, however, the critical tradition that often elevates “pure literature” tends to regard memoirs as mere historical records, overlooking their literary potential.

Recounting and memory

Recollection is inherently creative. Memory navigates a complex, disorganized world of experiences. To store and retrieve these memories effectively, individuals consciously or unconsciously filter and edit their personal experiences. This process involves the reconstruction of imagination, the assignment of meaning, adherence to linguistic norms, and psychological mechanisms of self-protection.

Early biographers, such as André Maurois, argued that autobiographies, as narratives of memory, are inherently unreliable, as memory often fails to reconstruct the past accurately. Many other writers have since echoed this view. However, narratives of memory pursue a constructive “truth of life,” rather than a mere recounting of facts. The so-called “unreliability” is, in fact, an artifact of the writer’s freedom and creativity.

Memory itself holds aesthetic value. Essentially, memory represents the present self’s reflection on the past self, with its beauty arising from the aesthetic distance between the two, as well as the visceral sense of time’s passage. Recounted experiences, unrepeatable yet vivid, often evoke both intimacy and melancholy. This is particularly evident in recollections of childhood, hometowns, youth, and first love. What writers describe may be the most ordinary situations and trivial details, yet when these fragments of memory blend with nostalgia and a sense of loss, everyday existence is imbued with a unique poetic quality.

Self and others

While memoirs invariably adopt a personal perspective, the writers tend to see themselves as part of a broader group, striving to bridge the private and public spheres by intertwining individual and collective memories. In this sense, memoirs embody literature’s role of engaging with social life. Individually, memoir writing involves not only the construction of one’s social identity but also a contest for public discourse. Collectively, memoirs contribute to the formation and reinforcement of collective identity.

For example, in the second half of the 20th century, many memoirs in Western societies were written by women, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities. These memoirists were not simply being “nostalgic” but sought to give voice to their communities by sharing their unique experiences. In this way, memoirs serve as an important force for advancing social justice and equality, directly engaging with society and public life. 

The ability of memoirs to connect the self with society and others endows them with a natural advantage in fostering empathy between the writer and the audience. Memoirs can evoke shared memories and similar life experiences through unembellished narrative techniques, facilitating communication and emotional resonance between authors and readers. Therefore, works exploring traumatic themes—adverse childhoods, war, violence, deprivation, illness, and bereavement—are becoming increasingly prevalent. In these works, writers seek to alleviate their own pain while readers experience lives that are either similar to or different from their own.

Art and life

Memoirs underscore the contingent nature of life. While fictional works such as novels and plays also draw on reality, they typically necessitate an imaginative reconstruction of raw, chaotic materials. This reconstruction entails presenting inevitability through chance and discarding unrepresentative elements.

In contrast, memoirs excel at preserving and restoring moments of life that have already passed. These moments may be singular and unconnected. Although memoir writing also involves a secondary creative process of refining original memories, it does not necessarily seek to extract universal patterns, nor does it exclude the presentation of life events that defy clear interpretation. 

Memoirs also help people understand the aesthetic power of real life, an attribute they share with non-fiction literature. Many writers, at the beginning of their creative processes, simply sought an appropriate expression for the real life they had deeply experienced, without consciously distinguishing between fictional and non-fictional methods. In the present day, readers turn to memoirs to broaden and deepen their own life experiences, seeking resonance in the life trajectories of others. Memoirs satisfy people’s yearning for authenticity and infuse new vitality into literature.

Zhao Pu is from the School of Art and Design at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University.

Edited by WANG YOURAN