“The Pragmatics of Autofiction”

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to compare the pragmatics of autofiction in Ben Lerner’s 10:04 and Siri Hustvedt’s Memories of the Future, two authors who, in dissimilar but also very similar ways, use autofictional strategies to refer to their personal lives and background without playing the autobiographical game “by the rules.” Focusing on how pragmatically they both create a sense of autofiction, a distinction will be established between primary criteria and secondary ones, essential signals without which an autofictional text cannot be identified as such and “enhancers” meant to strengthen the necessary ambiguity inherent in autofictional readings.