AustLit

'Despite our awareness of the slipperiness of truth, literary memoirists continue to attract vast audiences, keen to immerse themselves in the skillful transformation of "experience into meaning and value" (Hampl, "Memory" 208). The rich tradition of the literary memoir differs from so-called pulp memoirs in relying less on narcissism and self-justification and more on storytelling, figurative language, dialogue, and "moments of imagination" (Bartkevicius 134). The result is the capacity to convey subjective experience, from both intellectual and emotional perspectives, thereby "plung[ing] the reader into the real heart of the matter" (Silverman 149). In effectively portraying the emotions that inevitably underpin the heart of the matter, literary memoirists can also have an emotional impact on us as readers, wherein we are invited to "laugh, cry, squirm and gasp and wonder" (Gaunt 22).' (Introduction)