Introduction

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Abstract
Any life story, whether a written autobiography or an oral testimony, is shaped not only by the reworkings of experience through memory and re-evaluation but also always at least to some extent by art. Genre is not an easy matter to discuss; on the one hand the term is relatively new for social scientists, while on the other it has a very long and at times confusing history in literature and the visual arts, which continues to yield many helpful insights on autobiography. There have certainly been some fundamental difficulties with the traditional conceptualization of genre in the humanities. The current meaning of 'genre', which dates from the nineteenth century, is 'a style or category of painting, novel, film, etc., characterized by a particular form or purpose'. The problem of definition has indeed seriously concerned some of the most influential literary critics.

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