From Autobiography to Autofiction

Abstract

The last quarter of the twentieth century coincides with the evaluation of a deep-rooted concept, autobiography, as a literary notion as well as the determination of its theoretical framework. Autobiography, which has maintained its existence for centuries, has been influenced by the change that occurred in the perception of novel and in 1977, Serge Doubrovsky coined the term “autofiction” in order to separate contemporary, impermanent, disruptive, multi-layered and fragmented self-narratives from the conventional forms of autobiography. The aforementioned concept is concretized the transition from subject to text and hence the transformation of the author. Along with the major economic, historical, social and cultural transformations that has been defined as “postmodern” and took place between the years of 1980 and 1990, this new notion has drawn considerable attention. In a sense, the concept of autofiction, which has been emerged as a result of the rise of individualism, narcissism, and hedonism does not only appear in literary works but also in every aspect French culture. This study attempts to reveal how autobiography is defined as a literary discourse, how the notion of autofiction emerges, how it has been defined by theoreticians and how it has been perceived in the field of contemporary literary criticism.