The construction of the author identity in J. M. Coetzee and Enrique Vila-Matas

Abstract

This paper presents the construction strategies of authorial identity by the analyses of two contemporary novels which play with the limits of autobiographic fiction: Summertime (2009), by J. M. Coetzee and Doutor Pasavento (2005), by Enrique Vila-Matas. Whilst the narrative in Coetzee’s novel turns to the construction of the author’s posthumous identity through the gathering of testimonials and research in notebooks left by the fictional writer, the narrative of Vila-Matas adds an essay structure to recurring thematic elements in the work of the Spanish writer (as the autoreference, citation of another literary works; the subject of disappearance and the writing cessation – dubbed Bartleby Syndrome). Our reading indicates that these two novels illustrate the impossibility of ending a unique author identity and one solution found in contemporary literature is to incorporate into the narrative structure elements that make up this quandary.