Autofiction and Cultural Memory PDF
Preview Autofiction and Cultural Memory
ROUTLEDGE FOCUS AUTOFICTION AND CULTURAL MEMORY Hywel Dix Focus ‘Autofiction and Cultural Memory offers an excellent overview of recent thinking about the nature of autofiction and advances a persuasive argument. Drawing on a varied range of sources, Dix proposes a unique approach that will be useful for both literary study and interdisciplinary approaches to cultural memory. This is a key text for both experts and new scholars.’ Professor Timothy C. Baker, University of Aberdeen ‘Reversing the polarity of autofiction from individual to society, Hywel Dix’s Autofiction and Cultural Memory shows how a form once understood to be concerned with the self becomes a way of telling collective stories and broadening cultural memory for contemporary writers from postcolonial cultures.’ James Harker, Bard College Berlin Autofiction and Cultural Memory 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. Hywel Dix is Professor of English at Bournemouth University. His research interests include modern and contemporary literature, critical cultural theory, authorial careers and autofiction. His publications include The Late-Career Novelist (2017) and Autofiction in English (2018). New Literary Theory Series editors: Andy Mousley and Jeff Wallace Just Literature Philosophical Criticism and Justice Tzachi Zamir Happiness Jeffrey R. Di Leo Philosophy and the Art of Writing Richard Shusterman Autofiction and Cultural Memory Hywel Dix For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ New-Literary-Theory/book-series/NLTH Autofiction and Cultural Memory Hywel Dix First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Hywel Dix The right of Hywel Dix to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-32223-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-32226-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-31346-5 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003313465 Typeset in Times New Roman by MPS Limited, Dehradun For my mother, Lesley Dix. I’m very proud to be your son. Contents Series Preface x Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 1 On Autofiction and Cultural Memory 4 2 How the Author Became: Precursors and Preludes 23 3 The Author as Minor Character: Alternative Perspectives 48 4 The Poetics of Exile and Return 67 5 Autofiction Once, Twice, Three Times Removed 80 Conclusion 101 References 104 Index 110
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