Zwischen Autobiographie und Fiktion : neue literarische Schreibweisen bei Felicitas Hoppe, Charlotte Roche, Stephan Wackwitz und David Wagner

• Main Author: Haberlah, Gesine
• Published: University of Nottingham 2016
• Subjects: PT Germanic literature
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.692737

This thesis examines forms of autobiographical writing in the 21st century which are located at the intersection of autobiography and fiction. The literary sources selected question established genre boundaries, while also reflecting contemporary cultural discourses and creating particular images of their authors. My analysis investigates the new literary strategies emerging in Charlotte Roche’s Schoßgebete (2011), Stephan Wackwitz’s Ein unsichtbares Land (2003), Felicitas Hoppe’s Hoppe (2012) and David Wagner’s Leben (2012) in order to identify how texts such as these combine autobiography and fiction. Using a range of literary theories my textual analysis shows that autobiographical writing in the 21st century is more extensive than critical approaches such as ‘autofiction’ and ‘life writing’ suggest. The thesis demonstrates how genre hybridisations, intertextual combinations and inter-discursive conjunctions in the texts also move beyond Philippe Lejeune’s differentiation between autobiography and the novel. By combining characteristics of fictional narratives with features of factual texts such as the essay, the parody of academic biography or specifically context-related factual, in this case medical texts, these life stories reflect our understanding of identity in significantly new ways. Moreover, my investigation proves that the new forms of autobiographical writing engage with contemporary issues such as the role of the media and celebrity culture, national history and memory discourses, transculturalism and the significance of writing in the 21st century, medical developments and their consequences. The texts’ contribution to these discourses also constructs the authors’ self-presentation. Strategies and techniques identified range from provocative self-staging through positioning within a framework of national and family history, to outlining autobiographical poetics, or presenting different private and public facets of the author’s persona. My thesis addresses not only the effects of the increasing (public) interest in the private life of authors in contemporary autobiographical writing but also contributes to wider research on autobiography, genre and intertextuality.