Clemens J. Setz on Bursting the Reader’s Reality Bubble

Abstract

In our article, we explore implications that the indistinguishability of factuality and fictionality in literary works may have on an author’s credibility and their role as an authoritative figure. We do this by looking at one question and one answer in the fictional author interview in Bot – Gespräch ohne Autor (2018) by the Austrian author Clemens J. Setz. Currently, Setz is one of the most distinguished writers in the German-speaking literary scene, known for his versatile literary work and authorial staging practices. Bot plays with the public perception of the author persona Setz and stages an imitation game, also known as the Turing Test. Thus, it affects the perception of truth claims traditionally expected in author interviews. To illustrate, we refer to theoretical approaches to forms and functions of author interviews concerning authorship in the context of the so-called culture of presence and show how Bot reveals a playful reflection on the possibilities, limits, and dangers embedded in the perceived truthfulness within the framework of fiction and authorship, particularly in Setz’s.