‘Honesty of that Order Threatens Order’: The Autofiction of Chris Kraus, Annie Ernaux, and Sophie Calle

This article focuses on three texts that blur the boundaries of form—I Love Dick (1997) by Chris Kraus, Simple Passion (1991) by Annie Ernaux and Suite vénitienne (1983) by Sophie Calle. They can be read as autofiction in both their construction and autobiographical basis. The texts come together through their singular focus on a male other, who on each occasion is a subject without a voice. The article charts the development of the term autofiction to situate the texts, then through close readings draws out how they use the form to universalise the personal and to demonstrate a constructed 'I' through writing. The article focuses on the way the texts offer a reconfigured autobiographical relationality between women and men, and in this a disruptive excess. The article proposes that the characteristics of 'autofiction' support these achievements.