IPP KNL | Dr. Alexandra Effe (University of Oslo): "Autofiction from a Cognitive Perspective: Hybrid Writing, Texts, and Reading from the 18th to the 21st century"

The lecture proposes a new approach to autofiction, a currently popular but also highly debated concept. The term's two components—auto and fiction—designate texts that have something to do with the self and something with fiction (a concept that already poses challenges when it comes to definitions). Purely on the basis of the terms' etymology, autofiction can arguably be applied to many works of literature, and there has been no shortage of criticism of the term, in part for its imprecision.

Despite clear terminological flaws, the lecture argues, the concept of autofiction continues to be productive in drawing out and allowing us to see specific phenomena surrounding specific texts. As a new conjuncture in literary and cultural studies, the lecture introduces a cognitive and holistic approach to autofictional texts, and modes of writing and reading, and illustrates how such an approach generates new insights, especially in a diachronic perspective.

// Dr. Alexandra Effe (University of Oslo)

Please, register here for Dr. Alexandra Effe's Keynote Lecture (in person or online)