Writing Life in an Era of Post-Truth

Abstract

This article investigates Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s novels Systrarna and Pappaklausulen in relation to “autofictionalization,” a term coined by Claus Elholm Andersen. In this article, I claim that throughout Khemiri’s work, there is a recurrent strategy of blending the boundaries between fiction and autobiography by using his own name and including seemingly autobiographical details in his novels. I argue that Khemiri’s latest two novels indicate an attempt to move away from being positioned as a postmigrant author through narrative and linguistic strategies such as genre blending and performative biographism. The article suggests that Khemiri’s novels convey an intention to shift the discussion away from racialized categories of authorship and argue for the salience of other categories of analysis.