Fiction in the “Post-Truth” Era: The Ironic Effects of Autofiction

Autofiction occupies a liminal space between fiction and nonfiction that requires continuous adjustments to the reading process as the novel vacillates between biographical fact and outright fiction. “Post-truth” may have been Oxford Dictionary’s 2016 Word of the Year, but the popularity of autofiction demonstrates that, while readers like to toy with the idea of truth being in the eye of the beholder, they ultimately maintain a line of demarcation between fact and fiction. Despite poststructuralist assertions to the contrary, there remains a difference in effect between a factual story and a fictional one. On the other hand, readers’ ability to navigate autofiction’s narrative intricacies demonstrates the wider cultural acceptance of those same poststructuralist ideas. Autofictions consciously play with readerly expectations about memoir and fiction, thwarting both, thereby simultaneously calling into question, and making a case for, the importance of distinguishing between fact and fiction.