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This monograph treats modes of fictionality in contemporary auto/biography, memoir and autofiction. Adopting a case study approach, it demonstrates the extent to which contexts of production and reception are important in framing generic expectations with respect to the representation of lived experience and in helping to determine the status of the narrator as (fictional) persona or (implied) author.
With Radical Realism, Autofictional Narratives and the Reinvention of the Novel, Fiona Doloughan offers an insightful study that combines literary, historical, and cultural contexts in its analysis of the discussed works … It will be of interest to scholars interested in unconventional narrative forms and their literary as well as extratextual impact. KULT_online
Through its careful close reading of their works, the book makes a clear contribution to the scholarly understanding of the four writers in question. The book goes into extensive detail on the four authors and highlights the entanglements of nuance inherent in writing and reading autofiction, especially its open-endedness and ambiguity. - Life Writing
“Fiona J. Doloughan’s timely and engaging book excites for its unique examination of the radical realism practiced by contemporary auto fictional writers. Doloughan’s detailed and sharp exploration into the practice and nature of this post-truth literary realism bears on questions of reality and self-representation, fact and fiction, and the novel form and its social value. A must-read for scholars of autofiction, fictionality, realism or the history of the novel” —Nancy Pedri, Professor and Head of English, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
“What is the autobiographical ‘real’? Doloughan’s illuminating studies on autofiction and the auto fictional demonstrate that borders between life and art are permanently shifting, as are our ideas about what is reality and realism. What remains constant is our search for meaning and the worldmaking power of literature language.” —Jens Brockmeier, Professor of Psychology, The American University of Paris. Author of Beyond the Archive: Memory, Narrative, and the Autobiographical Process (Oxford University Press 2015).
“Fiction and nonfiction, objectivity and subjectivity appear mutually exclusive, but autobiography as a literary genre challenges this notion. Reflecting on self, author and narrator, Mikhail Bakhtin used the metaphor of the mirror: in it, we can see the reflection, but not ourselves. What is this reflection like? Fiona J. Doloughan’s new monograph examines a few controversial literary cases of this ‘transgredience’ – the fluid genre of ‘autofiction’ bending linear dimensions.” —Natasha Lvovich, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Literary Multilingualism, Professor Emerita of English, City University of New York.
Fiona J. Doloughan is Professor of English & Comparative Literature, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. She is the author of two previous monographs and numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on aspects of contemporary narrative.
Dedication; Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Theoretical and Critical Concerns: Key Terms and Arguments; The Anatomy of a Writer: Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle; Companion Pieces: Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? in Relation to Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit; A Cross-Cultural Memoir: Xiaolu Guo’s Once Upon a Time in the East; Rachel Cusk’s Search for New Forms: Self-Projection and Refraction in Fiction and Non-Fiction; Conclusion; References; Index