The fine line between creativity and reality
Literary matters are essential for shaping the mind’s creativity and perception. When two sides of the same literary coin are combined, fictionalism and non-fictionalistic biography, you get autofiction. Short for autobiographical fiction, the genre explores the author’s autobiography while incorporating fictionalized elements. Through implementing fictionalized characters, places, or even adjusting the plot of real-life scenarios of the author, the purpose of such a unique genre is to create a form of art that implements elements of creativity and imagination to explore themes that may not have aligned with reality. It’s also a way to focus on the story rather than the author’s actual choices and scenarios. Autofiction encourages the preservation of storytelling in autobiographical works by blending two genres, sustaining interest across different forms and explorations.
The term ‘autofiction’ was first used by Serge Doubrovsky in 1977 to describe his own book, Fils (1977), which centers on the narrator’s everyday life in New York City. It was unique because the narrator and main character were blended, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. Doubrovsky explains such a concept in an interview:
Autobiography? No, that is a privilege reserved for the important people of this world, at the end of their lives, in a refined style. Fiction, of strictly real events and facts; autofiction, if you will; to have entrusted the language of an adventure to the adventure of language, outside of the wisdom and the syntax of the novel, traditional or new. Interactions, threads of words, alliterations, assonances, dissonances, writing before or after literature, concrete, as we say, music.
What Doubrovsky didn’t know at the time was that such claims would transform into a genre that would categorize art by style and realism. The “language of an adventure to adventure of language” is, in other words, a method of exploring creativity through words, and how words alter the perception of the fine line between reality and art.
Author Joostde Bloois from the University of Amsterdam claims in her research that autofiction is a tool that authors use to critique the journey of fiction itself, arguing that ‘Autofiction’ as a medium is inherently an instrument of critique: ‘autofiction’ makes ‘critique.’ The originality that results from giving authors a platform to use their real-life situations while incorporating fiction helps them enhance the story’s realism, reflect on themselves, and even shift the narrative of the intended story.
We can understand just how impactful this expansion of literature was by shining a light upon well-known books that many might not know are autofiction—books which explore a variety of literary themes. Autofiction leverages the author into an exploratory narrative, which creates an alternative perspective on its message. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) follows Esther Greenwood, who moves to New York City for her new job, detailing her experiences with mental health, the rejection of social norms, and reflects on women’s place in society in 1950s America. Meanwhile, James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953) is about John Grimes, a 14-year-old boy living in Harlem, New York City. It explores Grimes’s journey through loss, identity issues, family conflicts, faith, and even financial struggles. Through Grimes, Baldwin illustrates the process of being ‘saved’ through faith. The undertones of the story deliver its purpose and the author’s point of sharing his experiences through the eyes of Grimes. Similarly, Elif Batuman’s The Idiot (2017) tackles the story of Selin, an immigrant student at Harvard who grapples with identity and communication. It follows her journey to Hungary and her story of perseverance.
What do these three books have in common? They narrate and explore the author’s life to illustrate how they evolved through and resolved conflict. This both connects with the reader and conveys the message of perseverance. However, it’s also clear that the change in narration/main character gives the stories an individualistic and distinct motive, separating it from both the author and the character’s life. These decisions illustrate that autofiction is uniquely essential to storytelling.
Storytelling comes in many distinct forms, but it’s the impact the story delivers that makes autofiction stand out from other literary genres. The term ‘autofiction’ is what happens when a storyteller adds their own twist to their personal experience. They demonstrate the lengths to which creativity can go beyond the lines of simple fiction and non-fiction, confidently elucidating that literature is not black and white. The possibilities are unlimited when it comes to words and the creative mind, just as Doubrovsky remarks: “to have entrusted the language of an adventure to the adventure of language.”