Memoirs are ... The meaning of the word "memoirs"

Memoirs are A wonderful occasion to tell the descendants about the truthful events of his time. This is an analysis of one's own personality, revealing the cause-and-effect relationships of life. Emotional saturation of the narrative will help to permeate the spirit of the era, to understand the essence of the author's thoughts. A significant life experience makes memoirs an invaluable example for future generations.

Origin of the word

The word "memoirs" comes from the French memoires, which translates as "memories". This word first appears in 1896. "The Encyclopaedic Dictionary" by FA Brockhaus and IE Efron talks about the genres of memoir literature.

Memoirs are documentary literature. They are characterized by a narrative from the first person - a participant or witness of the events described. Memoirs are a kind of confessional prose. They convey the mood of the era, the world outlook of people, the culture of the country. They are able to tell about the events of that time, as the author sees them.

Autobiographical confession of a person bears the appraisal perception of his time: the surrounding people, their status and habits, moods and thoughts. Memoirs can be attributed by genre to biography, historical prose, essay. But the documentality, realism brings the memoir literature closer to personal diaries, letters, notes.

What are memoirs?

Memoirs are notes of a real person. His subjective perception of facts, events, relationships, people. Memoirs have always been a source for recreating the historical picture of a certain era.

In such literary confessions, in addition to personal relationships, one can read about the aesthetic and spiritual preferences of people of that time. It is his subjective opinion that memoirs differ from historical chronicles. They are interesting in how a particular person perceives the surrounding reality. But this sometimes hinders the perception of time. The appraisal of a person can be biased. Therefore, the personality of the author, his education, his mentality is so important for literary confession .

With the advent of writing, it was interesting for a man to write down his thoughts, take notes on events. Memoirs were formed as a genre in the XVI-XVII century, when the awareness of the uniqueness of each human personality came. The value of author's thought became the impetus to writing a literary confession. People through their personal opinions conveyed the fragrance of time.

Who wrote the memoirs?

Of particular value are the memoirs of generals, famous politicians. They help to reproduce the arena of battles or political conflicts. Court life, diplomatic intrigues, religious scandals are described in the essays of Margarita de Valois, Duke de Rohan, La Rochefoucauld, Louis de Conde. Even the hangmen in the XVI century wrote memoirs.

In the Napoleonic era, almost all the generals and close to the emperor left behind interesting literary notes.

Russian memoirs begin their narration from troubled times. They represent the usual chronology of events. Under Peter I, a massive surge of documentary notes caused the confrontation between Peter and Princess Sophia. Later, military campaigns, the capture of cities described by the contemporaries of the king.

Then the genre is gaining momentum. In Russia, the rule of each of the kings and queens is described by their approximate relatives.

Under Catherine II memoirs have found a clear construction. They write mores of the time, political differences, social characteristics are given.

Nowadays literary confession has become an important part of famous persons. Actors, the military, politicians, diplomats, doctors, mediums try to leave a trace in literary creation. G. Ford, A. Christie, D. Rockefeller, T. Okunevskaya, M. Gorbachev, G. Vishnevskaya, M. Vladi - a description of life, events, interesting meetings and reflections is capable of incorporating the genre of memoirs.

Why do they write memoirs?

The meaning of the word "memoirs" implies reasoning, memories of a particular person. Thinking about life, people tend to sum up, try to justify themselves or regret their actions. In the elderly, most often comes the desire to write about their lives, share with the new generation their mistakes and victories.

For famous people, literary confession is an occasion to tell about fascinating or significant events, fateful meetings. Someone is trying to describe their hard way, someone is trying to justify themselves, someone is trying to earn money for a comfortable old age.

Most often, memoirs are written in order to relive their youth, recall its important milestones, funny or sad moments.