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  • Open Access
  • © 2022

The Autofictional

Approaches, Affordances, Forms

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Expands the parameters of conversations on autofiction to date to allow new perspectives, different voices and diverse case studies to emerge
  • Offers innovative and wide-ranging responses to a continuously flourishing literary phenomenon
  • This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Life Writing (PSLW)

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
  2. Introduction: From Autofiction to the Autofictional

    • Alexandra Effe, Hannie Lawlor
    Pages 1-18Open Access
  3. Approaches

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19
    2. The Fictional in Autofiction

      • Alison James
      Pages 41-60Open Access
    3. A Cognitive Perspective on Autofictional Writing, Texts, and Reading

      • Alexandra Effe, Alison Gibbons
      Pages 61-81Open Access
    4. “The Pragmatics of Autofiction”

      • Arnaud Schmitt
      Pages 83-99Open Access
    5. The Autofictional in Serial, Literary Works

      • Ricarda Menn, Melissa Schuh
      Pages 101-118Open Access
  4. Affordances

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 119-119
    2. Multilingual Autofiction: Mobilizing Language(s)?

      • Helle Egendal
      Pages 141-160Open Access
    3. Visual Autofiction: A Strategy for Cultural Inclusion

      • Karen Ferreira-Meyers, Bontle Tau
      Pages 161-183Open Access
    4. Autofiction as a Lens for Reading Contemporary Egyptian Writing

      • Hala Kamal, Zainab Magdy, Fatma Massoud
      Pages 205-224Open Access

About this book

This open access book offers innovative and wide-ranging responses to the continuously flourishing literary phenomenon of autofiction. The book shows the insights that are gained in the shift from the genre descriptor to the adjective, and from a broad application of “the autofictional” as a theoretical lens and aesthetic strategy. In three sections on “Approaches,” “Affordances,” and “Forms,” the volume proposes new theoretical approaches for the study of autofiction and the autofictional, offers fresh perspectives on many of the prominent authors in the discussion, draws them into a dialogue with autofictional practice from across the globe, and brings into view texts, forms, and media that have not traditionally been considered for their autofictional dimensions. The book, in sum, expands  the parameters of research on autofiction to date to allow new voices and viewpoints to emerge.



Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Alexandra Effe

  • University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Hannie Lawlor

About the editors

Alexandra Effe is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo, Norway. As Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, UK, she co-runs the project “Autofiction in Global Perspective.” She is the author of J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Narrative Transgression: A Reconsideration of Metalepsis (2017).

Hannie Lawlor is Lecturer in Spanish at Exeter College and Keble College, University of Oxford, UK. She recently completed her PhD in contemporary French and Spanish women’s life-writing at Wolfson College, Oxford.


Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

Softcover Book USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access