American Literature / Unit 2 AML 0121 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Autobiography, Memoir, Slave Narrative, Captivity Narrative
Captions available
The idea
Autobiography tells a whole life; memoir takes a part of one. The captivity narrative recounts seizure and return; the slave narrative recounts bondage, escape and the making of a free self. Both carry an argument inside the story.
In practice
A life, a part, a captivity, an escape.
Where people slip
Both American forms argue while they narrate.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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