Fact and fiction in autoconfession: A theoretical confrontation

Abstract

The formulation of the topic fact and fiction in auto-confession is a result of earlier research in which the greatest theoretical confrontation takes place in the area of autobiographical prose. This paper investigates and explores issues with which contemporary poetics is faced regarding the concepts in question, especially when they coexist within a work concerned either with genre codification or with undefined status (i.e. hybrid genre). Such discussions are often accompanied by great dilemmas on whether auto-confessional texts such as autobiography or autobiographical prose should be considered fact or fiction. Being a fierce confrontation, especially for a genre that is considered a compromising genre in which the facts are weaved according to the fictional practice, this paper proposes that a double reading (fact-fiction) will highlight issues that are essential to interpret and decode a text of autoconfessional premises and, beyond that, a codification of the genre when dilemmas grow and become even larger: In fiction, nonfiction, novel, autobiographical novel, autobiography, etc.