The desire to say: notes on the margin of autofiction

Abstract

In 1977 Serge Doubrovsky came up with the term autofiction to define his novel Fils, distinguishing himself from the then ill-considered autobiographical novels and autobiographies. Although it may change its name, the art of the self, the literature of the
intimate, the autobiographical or the one that fictionalises one’s life has its roots in diaries,
letters and stories written indoors. The concrete, the particular, the singular voice of
difference have traditionally remained on the margins of what was considered art — in all
its dimensions, pictorial, literary, cinematographic —. This article explores the edges of autofiction and feminine writings of intimacy.