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Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
Girl, Interrupted is a memoir. Memoir is a kind of "life writing"—a way for authors to put real experiences and memories into literature that others can relate to and enjoy. This book's central character and narrator, Susanna, is also the author, Susanna Kaysen. To bring Girl, Interrupted to life, Kaysen had to dig into her real life, emotions and experiences at McLean; she is both a character in the story and the architect of its retelling.
Memoir writing is distinct from fictional writing associated with novels and short stories. Though memoirs can sometimes read like fiction, and though fictional works almost always draw on real life, it is important to note that memoirs aim to capture lived experiences by recounting and analyzing actual events as the author remembers them. This doesn't mean that memoirs need to be arranged chronologically, however. Memories are not always linear, and neither are many memoirs; works like Girl, Interrupted chop up and rearrange time to create a retrospective narrative, allowing the past to be viewed through different lenses.
For people wanting to tell their stories—especially people who have had life-altering experiences or whose stories are not commonly represented in media—nonfiction life writing can be a powerful and liberating tool for self-expression and social change.
