Exposure to life-writing as an impact on autobiographical memory

Abstract

This article combines narrative and genre theory with recent studies of memory processing and reporting to propose that contact with published biography and autobiography, both direct and indirect, has an influence on autobiographical narrative, memory and self-formation. Exposure to durable and pervasive modes of life-writing, transmitted culturally, provides frameworks for meaning-making that normalize certain narrative structures and shape the content and organization of autobiographical memory. This article traces the transfer of conventions found in life-writing genres in recently reported autobiographical memory studies, to argue that further consideration should be given in empirical research contexts to the impact of cultural and educational factors on memory.