The Dwindling Prominence of Historical Memoirs in a Post-Historical World: Claude Lanzmann’s “The Patagonian Hare”

The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux; 544 p.  Memoirs used to belong to the realm of the accomplished. In this sense, an essential question has always haunted the memoir i.e. why should I read about your life? We used to know the answer. After a singular life of historic importance a person felt obligated or entitled to write their life story. Now memoirs belong to the young, to the not yet accomplished. Whereas memoirs […]

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