L’étiquette générique "autofiction": us et coutumes

Abstract

Autofiction has become a theoretical tool which allows us to review larger questions such as the permanent redistribution of the boundaries of fiction or the general autofictionalization peculiar to postmodern society. The purpose of this paper is to offer a diagnosis of the theoretical debate around autofiction in order to determine the ways in which autofiction is employed as a generic label as well as the limits of this ambiguous category. Beyond purelystylistic and textual parameters or even the paradoxical nature of the pragmatic plane, the analysis reveals the need to give up the panfictionalist doxa involving autofictional postmodern practices. Thus the thematic, ontological and anthropological implications of a kind of être-au-monde as impostor can be evaluated, as well as the historical evolution of that mode of literary imposture.

Keywords

• Autofiction
• generic labels
• fiction
• autobiography
• fictionalization.