AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND THE FOURTH GENRE
AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND THE FOURTH GENRE

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this study is to provide reflections on the strategies employed and on the solutions found by critics who focused on defining autobiography, trying to prescribe its boundaries and place limits on its possibilities. Starting from the area of gender analysis as outlined in the theoretical accounts of critics such as Philippe Lejeune, Paul Cobley and Clinton Machann, I go on to discuss Root and Steinberg’s preface to the anthology The Fourth Genre. (2002) where the two postulate the existence of a fourth genre, namely that of creative non-fiction. By analysing in detail the most important elements common to the works of creative nonfiction, as outlined by Root and Steinberg, I arrive at the conclusion that autobiography satisfies all the conditions required for it to be accepted under the umbrella-term of creative nonfiction.

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