I am looking at Gretel Ehrlich’s experiences, depictions, and interactions in the West in her memoir The Solace of Open Spaces in order to analyze the ways in which she uses this platform to transform personal experiences into universal concepts so that my readers can better understand the function, purpose, and effect of memoirs as a genre and the relationship formed between author and reader in the sharing of personal anecdotes within the text. 

I think that applying a structuralist lens is appropriate here as it allows me to see how Ehrlich plays with the form of her experiences chronologically, but also gives me contrast to see how she breaks from that form and what the purpose would be. I also think that addressing reader response is essential because memoirs are meant to create a bond between author and reader, and the author is trying to convey a key message to the reader through personal stories and the effect on the reader is necessary to consider as it can determine how effective the author/memoir is. Finally, I believe looking at this memoir through a psychoanalytical lens will help me to determine why Ehrlich chose to write this memoir and thus how she and her readers can benefit from reading/writing these texts. I ultimately seek to understand why memoirs are so successfully and compelling to readers, but I also wish to find out why the author felt compelled to share his or her story.

Greiner, D.Rae. “Negative Response: Silence in Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces.” Women’s Studies, vol. 29, no. 2, Mar. 2000, p. 217-248. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00497878.2000.9979309.