Autofiction: A Female Francophone Aesthetic of Exile

Abstract

Antonia Wimbush’s Autofiction: A Female Francophone Aesthetic of Exile offers an analysis of different models of female exile and displacement by six Francophone postcolonial women writers of autofictional works. Where, traditionally, definitions of exile have more typically had a masculine focus, Wimbush instead places women at the center, filling a gap in the critical literature. The result is an intercultural approach to exile difficulties from a feminist perspective, with an emphasis on the complex equilibrium between autobiography and literature that occurs in autofiction. The six studied authors have enjoyed commercial and critical success, yet despite this, their adherence to the traditionally “masculine” genre of writings of exile also means that they do not operate in the canonical écriture féminine. The book is divided into seven main chapters, with the first chapter, “Exile, Autofiction, and Women’s Writing” introducing the concepts of exile and autofiction to the reader, focusing on the women’s point of view. One of Wimbush’s main opening arguments is that autobiographical fiction is particularly relevant in the postcolonial context. The second chapter deals with exile and family estrangement in two autofictional works by the Franco-Vietnamese author Kim Lefèvre: Métisse blanche (1989) and Retour à la saison des pluies (1990). The main theme of this chapter is the concept of métissage (mixed-race identity) and the author’s metaphorical exile from her own family and roots, as well as her geographical exile. Ultimately, Lefèvre reconciles her mixed-race identity with her origin, providing a positive conclusion to the tensions of métissage.