The Deployment of Autofiction in Academia. Campus Novel in the Current Spanish Narrative

Abstract

The article aims to analyze rhetorical devices derived from the convergence of two different genres of the contemporary Spanish novel: the campus novel and autofiction. Genres, in essence, are encodings which dictate the style, and in these novels, because of their very nature, the author might be tempted to cultivate solely the sphere that is most entertaining for the reader (or in interest of the literary market), through an epidermal, self-indulgent, and balmy prose. The defiance of these novels lies therefore in their ability to trangress the leaden narcissistic pleasure that can easily take over, and to make the most of the genre’s omnivorous and moldable character, both in terms of the rich mosaic of narrative techniques and the ability to offer an enchanting, new reading-experience. Building on these ideas, the article will analyze in detail two autofictional novels, which can be categorized as campus novels: La velocidad de la luz (2005) by Javier Cercas and the most recent, Un momento de descanso (2011) by Antonio Orejudo. The article will pay specific attention to a number of characteristics that these novels have in common, including the role played by autofiction and two further type of attributes that have been barely touched by the secondary literature: their ethical implications (which go far beyond the concept of intimate confession), and the evident continuity between the genre of autofiction and the interpretative categories of the readers.