[Commlist] CFP: Autofiction in the Age of the Self(ie)

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Call for papers: Autofiction in the Age of the Self(ie)
Special Issue of /English Studies in Canada/
Deadline for abstracts: January 15, 2020
Deadline for final essays (6000-9000 words): August 15, 2020
Submit to: (mbloom /at/ glendon.yorku.ca)
If the late nineties and early oughts witnessed what Leigh Gilmore has 
termed a ‘memoir boom’, the intervening years have seen the rise of a 
new genre: autofiction. Coined by Serge Doubrovsky in 1977 and initially 
associated with French writers, the term—and the self-fictionalizing 
practices it designates—have exploded into the international mainstream.
Although there is no critical consensus about what constitutes this 
genre--or whether it should even be/considered/ a distinct 
genre--examples of works that blur the line between autobiography and 
fiction have increased wildly over the past several decades in the US, 
Canada, Scandinavia, Germany, and elsewhere. Both the corpus and the 
conversation are broadening to encompass a range of texts and approaches 
by writers whose work falls between and beyond traditional publishing 
industry categories such as autobiography, memoir, confession, essay, 
and fiction.  Some scholars are using this lens to trace lineages with 
earlier writers and genres such as the roman-à-clef.
Autofiction has been touted by some as a productive response to the 
commodification, digitization, and proliferation of the self in a 
contemporary culture that has called the very nature of ‘truth’ and 
‘fact’ into question. Others – particularly racialized writers and 
women—have rejected the label, arguing that it overvalues or 
mischaracterizes the autobiographical dimension of their writing, 
further entrenching pernicious stereotypes. Is autofiction a reaction 
/against /the selfie, or simply another manifestation? Does the label 
refer to a new form of writing, or is it just a new way of describing 
metafictional techniques that have appeared in literature since /The 
Canterbury Tales/?
//
This special issue invites papers that consider these questions or any 
aspect of autofiction and its associated genres (autotheory, biofiction, 
creative nonfiction, etc.). Authors are welcome to discuss works that 
have been translated into English, and are particularly encouraged to 
focus on women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, disabled, and otherwise marginalized writers.
Please submit abstracts of 500 words to Dr. Myra Bloom 
(mbloom /at/ glendon.yorku.ca) by January 15, 2020. Final essays (6,000-9,000 
words) are due August 15, 2020.

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