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

Mapping the largely neglected history of autofictional literature, and describing developments against socio-historical changes, cultural trends, and philosophical-psychological discussions around self and mind, this book both explores and historicizes autofiction’s contemporary boom. Beginning with the genre’s emergence in 18th-century England against changes in publishing culture and author concept, and then tracing forms and functions of autofictional literature 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 contexts, Alexandra Effe foregrounds autofictional elements of works not previously considered for these dimensions and offers fresh perspectives on a range of canonical autofictional texts.

interdisciplinary in approach, the book sheds light on autofictional phenomena through research in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy of mind while demonstrating that autofictional literature holds insights for cognitive science. Developing a cognitive-holistic approach to the triad of author, text, and reader, the book allows for a novel and more encompassing understanding of an important current cultural trend and of its diachronic development.

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＂.