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This article examines how Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose utilizes fictional girlhood as a means of life writing, exploring the complexities of identity and authorship.

July 26, 2026Life WritingOpen Access

Fictional Girlhood as Life Writing: Happiness, Hoax, and Autobiographical Displacement in Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose

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This article examines how Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose utilizes fictional girlhood as a means of life writing, exploring the complexities of identity and authorship.
Analyzed Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose in the context of life writing studies and girlhood studies.
Investigated themes of motherhood, grief, and the ethics of writing about the deceased.
Compared Li’s work with other novels to understand its response to reality.
The novel depicts fictional girlhood as a mode of relational and displaced autobiographical thinking.
Agnes and Fabienne's literary hoax illustrates that public authorship is shaped by adult institutions.
Li uses fiction to reflect on complex themes like divided self and borrowed language without resorting to direct autobiography.

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This article analyzes how Yiyun Li’s novel uses fictional girlhood to explore themes of life writing and authorship.

Cite This Study

Heng Xie (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a65a6f2d3aea3239cd780af https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2026.2705215

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Fictional Girlhood as Life Writing: Happiness, Hoax, and Autobiographical Displacement in Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose

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Cite This Study

Fictional Girlhood as Life Writing: Happiness, Hoax, and Autobiographical Displacement in Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

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