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 art. Any communication has to use shared conventions not only of language itself, but also the more complex expectations of genre, of the forms expected within a given context and type of communication.

Any life story, whether a written autobiography or an oral testimony, is shaped not only by the reworkings of experience through memory and reevaluation, but also by art. Any communication has to use shared conventions not only of language itself, but also the more complex expectations of "genre," the forms expected within a given context and type of communication. How far do the expectations and forms of genre shape different kinds of autobiography and influence what messages it can convey?