Autofiction

Autofiction is a term used in literary criticism to refer to a form of fictionalized autobiography.

Serge Doubrovsky coined the term in 1977 with reference to his novel Fils. Autofiction combines two paradoxically contradictory styles: that of autobiography, and fiction. An author may decide to recount his/her life in the third person, to modify significant details or 'characters', using fiction in the service of a search for self. It has parallels with faction, a genre devised by Truman Capote to describe his novel In Cold Blood.

Autofiction is principally a genre associated with contemporary French authors, among them: Christine Angot, Guillaume Dustan, Alice Ferney, Annie Ernaux, Olivia Rosenthal, Anne Wiazemsky, and Vassilis Alexakis. Catherine Millet's 2002 memoir The Sexual Life of Catherine M. famously used autofiction to explore the author's sexual experiences.

In India, autofiction has been associated with the works of Tamil Postmodern writer Charu Nivedita. His novel Zero_degree, a path breaking work in Tamil literature,his recent Novel "Exile" are example of this genre.^[1] Japanese author Hitomi Kanehara wrote a novel titled Autofiction.

See also

• Biography in literature

References