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Summary
This article focuses on the question of genre in postmodern life writing.
Definitions of autobiography are explained in an effort to define the scope of the
inquiry. The emphasis is placed on how fiction impinges on autobiographical texts,
in particular experimental texts from recent decades. The interaction between his-
tory and memory is examined and the use of secondary material, such as pho-
tographs, is explored, as regards the referentiality of the works. A reworking and
re-examination of the past is one aspect of postmodernism that is highlighted in
the autobiographical works discussed. It is maintained here that this proves to be
a fertile ground for writers who actively pursue the relationship between memory
and writing and that the texts discussed straddle the borderline between autobio-
graphy and fiction.