Autofiction and Cultural Memory

Description

Autofiction and Cultural Memory breaks new ground in autofiction research by showing how it gives postcolonial writers a means of bearing witness to past cultural or political struggles, and hence of contributing to new forms of cultural memory. Most discussion of autofiction has treated it as an individualistic form, dealing with the personal growth of its authors. In doing so, it privileges narratives of private development over those of social commitment and accords with Western concepts of ownership and authorship. By contrast, Hywel Dix shows how a variety of writers outside the Western world have used the techniques of autofiction in a different way, placing themselves on the side lines of their own stories to show solidarity with struggles against imperialism and tyranny. Drawing on examples from Algeria, Ethiopia, the Caribbean, the Americas, India and Turkey, Dix presents autofiction as a form which combines the life stories of authors with the collective struggles of their societies to restore to view historical injustices that have been marginalised and forgotten. By contributing to new forms of cultural memory, autofiction raises important questions about what we choose to remember and what we value in the present. This book will be of interest to anyone working in postcolonial studies, world literature, trauma studies, autobiography, life writing or social justice. Cover Endorsements Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents New Literary Theory: Series Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. On Autofiction and Cultural Memory The Rise of Autofiction Origins of Cultural Memory Towards an Autofiction of Cultural Memory 2. How the Author Became: Precursors and Preludes A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as Precursor and Prelude Authorial Presence as Puzzle and Tactic in Break of Day Cultural Memory as Heteronormativity in Oranges are not the only fruit (1985) Autofiction Versus Cultural Memory in Ben Lerner's 10:04 Avatars of Avatars in Siri Hustvedt's Blazing World 3. The Author as Minor Character: Alternative Perspectives The Postcolonial Inferiority Complex in Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Free Indirect Discourse in Distant Relations Speculative Autofiction in Pamuk's Snow The Autofictional Mode in The Book of Chocolate Saints 4. The Poetics of Exile and Return Trauma and Repetition in All Men Want to Know Writing about Writers in Dany Laferrière's The Enigma of the Return (2009) 5. Autofiction Once, Twice, Three Times Removed Narrating Postmemory in The Distance Between Us Cuisine as Creative Art in Maryse Condé's Victoire (2006) Fictionalising Postmemory in The Shadow King Conclusion References Index