Abstract

 
 
 
 At the end of the sixth volume of My Struggle, Knausgård writes that he now wants to enjoy, “really enjoy the thought that I am no longer a writer.” These famous words have been read as the author’s farewell to his authorship, which was not, however, confirmed by the author’s further writings. In this article, I show that the closing words can be understood with reference to August Strindberg’s Forfättaren (1877- 1887) as a break with a particular image of the author to which My Struggle relates. This interpretation of the closing words also gives a completely new understanding of how My Struggle is doubleexposed with Strindberg’s autobiographical project, and thus far more constructed than has hitherto been recognized. This also sheds a different light on the work’s relationship to the autobiographical genre, its authenticity and character assassination.
 
 
 
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