Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast
A Study in the Genre of Memoir
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Traditionally, the genre of memoir focuses on a
single event or limited time span in the author’s life, retrospectively relates
events or character depictions through the author’s perspective combining
elements of fact with fiction, and allows readers to enter the author’s mind
and acquire unique insights into his heart to a greater extent than other
genres permit.
This study has centered on Hemingway’s perspective
on memoir. Evidence emanating from a myriad of sources leads one to conclude
that Hemingway broke literary rules to suit his purposes. He went beyond the
selection of memoir as a genre adaptable to his subject matter. He altered the
genre itself. Hemingway changed the rules of memoir writing, as evidenced in A
Moveable Feast, so as to impact the genre for new use by future writers.
As demonstrated through A Moveable Feast,
however, Hemingway’s memoir adheres to the basic characteristics of memoir
enumerated above. Nevertheless, his tendency to embellish, exaggerate, and even
misstate facts appears to enjoy a healthy relationship with the essence of the
truth as Hemingway perceives it. Thus, the reader engages the spirit of
whatever happened through re-creation rather than transcription.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Ernest Hemingway was more than a writer. He was a
catalyst for a literary movement that has gone unnoticed – until now. Professor
Botta contends that the contemporary genre of memoir became a hybrid example of
autobiography in the latter part of the twentieth century, largely due to the
treatment of the genre in Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. Arguably the
best-known American writer, Hemingway changed the rules of the writing game by
effectively altering the definition of memoir. For the next half-century, the
mold he created blossomed into a genre of creative nonfiction.
In choosing memoir as the genre for A Moveable
Feast, Hemingway indelibly etched new characteristics into a style of
writing as a popular mechanism to connect readers with the particular past he
chose to explore. Professor Botta’s study of the memoir genre is overpowering
in its originality, demonstrating the parameters of the traditional memoir and
Hemingway’s ability to alter the genre to serve his purposes, creating a lasting
impact on literature. This close dissection of Hemingway’s classic work, packed
with incisive thought, easily convinces readers of the extent to which
Hemingway single-handedly sculpted a hybrid genre, transforming fiction into
reality.
About the Author
John J. Botta, Jr. is a faculty member at a private
New England college, where he teaches Writing, Humanities, and Sociology
courses. He is a graduate of New York Law School, California State University,
Trinity College and University in the United Kingdom, and Seton Hall
University. He has lectured internationally in the areas of Critical Thinking,
Leadership, and Ethics.
Professor Botta is the author of To Hug an Angel
and Surviving the Journey: A Universal Approach for the Student Critic. His
online publications include: Philosophy and Contemporary Issues; Free Speech
and Pornography; The Responsibility of Criminals; and, Rationalism v.
Empiricism.
He resides in North Sutton, New Hampshire with his
wife of thirty-three years. They have four children and two grandchildren.