Rev. of Autofiction: A Female Francophone Aesthetic of Exile

Antonia Wimbush’s study, Autofiction: A Female Francophone Aesthetic of Exile, aims to analyze and compare the representation of exile in the work of no fewer than six contemporary female authors (Kim Lefèvre, Gisèle Pineau, Nina Bouraoui, Michèle Rakotoson, Véronique Tadjo, and Abla Farhoud). The result is a very well-written analysis with an admirable clarity of expression and argument. It contributes to a growing number of studies (in English) of life writing in the French language. The popular notion of autobiography as a form of life writing is renowned for its francophone origins, and its propagation in contemporary academic work has been heavily associated with the work of Philippe Lejeune and his theorization of the “autobiographical pact.” By contrast, life writing is not a term that has a simple equivalent in other languages, including major world languages such as French. Thus, Wimbush’s discussion of the nuances that tie and separate life writing and autofiction—the term closest to life writing in the francophone world—in French and English (from Serge Dubrouvsy to Philippe Gasparini to Arnaud Schmitt) is especially beguiling and useful.1 Wimbush indeed notes that a corpus of work distinctly identified as autofiction in English has been unveiled by Hywel Dix (2018).2 The authors who Wimbush examines emanate from diverse areas of the Francosphere, including well-studied nations such as Algeria (Bouraoui) and the Caribbean (Pineau), and areas that are less well known in the Anglosphere, such as Lebanon (Farhoud) and Madagascar (Rakotoson). The broad, inclusive framework of this title allows ample Works Cited