After rewriting the displayed image by applying a voltage corresponding to desired image data to a ferroelectric liquid crystal through TFTs at a predetermined cycle, the application of voltage to the ferroelectric liquid crystal is stopped, and the image displayed just before stopping the application of voltage is retained. In this memory display period, a gate-off voltage is applied to turn off the TFTs. In this memory display period, the emission intensity of a back-light is lowered compared to that in a normal display period. Before stopping the application of voltage to the ferroelectric liquid crystal, a voltage corresponding to an image to be displayed after stopping the application of voltage is applied. Before resuming the application of voltage corresponding to the image data to the ferroelectric liquid crystal, a voltage for causing all pixels to display black image is applied.