A History of Autofiction: Cognitive and Cultural Work from 18th-Century England to Contemporary Global Anglophone Literatures

(Hardback)

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Mapping the hitherto largely neglected history of autofictional literature and describing developments in autofictional modes against socio-historical changes, cultural trends, and philosophical-psychological discussions around self and mind, this book both explores and historicizes the genres contemporary boom. Beginning with autofictions emergence in 18th-century England against changes in publishing culture and author concept, and then tracing forms and functions of autofiction up to the contemporary moment, A History of Autofiction highlights why select narrative strategies are abandoned, transformed, or repurposed; which forms, affordances, and effects of autofictional modes are persistent; and which were particular to a given period. With focus on salient authors and texts from anglophone autofiction around the world and shining spotlights on insightful socio-historical and biographical ideas, Alexandra Effe also works to foreground autofictional elements of works not previously considered part of the genre.

Interdisciplinary and holistic in approach, this book offers fresh perspectives on a range of canonical autofictional texts, allowing for a novel and more encompassing understanding of an important current cultural trend and of its development. Shedding light on autofictional phenomena through research in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy of the mind while demonstrating that autofictional literature holds insights for cognitive science, Effe also innovates how autofiction has been studied by developing a cognitive-holistic approach to the triad of author, text, and reader.

Reviews

Effe provides a much-needed historical perspective to the study of autofiction, a genre that has been dismissed as mere current fashion or postmodern posturing. In demonstrating that the autofictional has existed since the origin of the English novel, Effe paints a deeper, broader, and more historically-accurate portrayal of the field. * Chloe Green, Lecturer in English, Australian National University, Australia *

Author Bio

Alexandra Effe is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Literature, Cognition and Emotions at the University of Oslo, Norway. She is the author of J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Narrative Transgression (2017) co-editor of The Autofictional (2021) and Autofiction, Emotions, and Humour (2023). As Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, she co-convened the project Autofiction in Global Perspective".