Autofiction in contemporary German literature and its distinctions

Abstract

The article discusses the concept of “autofiction” via analysis of three recent German literary books. Suggesting that fiction should be defined, at first place, by imaginary (invented) elements, it challenges the use of the term in its wide definition and its extension to remote periods of history which tend to substitute “autobiography” by “autofiction”. It is proposed to reserve “autofiction” in the strict sense exclusively for literature that offers an intentional ambiguous pact which plays with the empirical author’s image by means of fictitious (or ambiguous) elements. Autobiographical texts, however, that use narrative strategies of fictional writing without abdicating from the referentiality of the content, constitute a new class of life writing that might be called autonarration in accordance with A. Schmitt.