"Any life story, written or oral, more or less dramatically, is in one sense a personal mythology, a self-justification", write Raphael Samuels & Paul Thompson. "Any autobiographical narrative doubles as a morality; and this can be discerned not only in its shaping, but in the mythical elements which may be juxtaposed with unique personal memory". In short, the mythical elements in memory need to be seen both as evidence of the past and as a continuing …showed first 75 words of 1127 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1127 total…in the 1920s. It was all so strange that it overawed me. I never went again. That is all she says about being Jewish; in effect, it is as if she wishes to acknowledge and then erase her heritage. (cf Chance Newton) What actors' autobiographies choose to represent and to erase can be usefully demonstrated not only from the written text but also with reference to the photographs they choose to include in their memoirs.