Het DNA van de Stijl - in autobiografische romans

Abstract

The autobiographical genre, booming these days, has aroused interest of pragmatic literary approaches that focus on the effects of a text on the reader. They do not highlight questions about the demarcation of the autobiographical genre, but focus on why a reader reads a novel as an autobiographical text. Therefore, the effect of authenticity is the central point. This approach requires attention to intratextual strategies and to stylistic devices. In this article I will concentrate on the kind of stylistic devices that function as autobiographical and authenticity markers. I will illustrate these by analysing fragments from the novel «Het lied en de waarheid» by Helga Ruebsamen and the autobiographical text «Walsenkoning» by Louis Ferron.