Docufiction as a mode of narration in contemporary German literature

• Applicant: Dr. Agnes Bidmon
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 409904107

The project aims at an essential analysis of an increasingly significant mode of narration in contemporary German literature that is called ‘docufiction’. This recent development within the literary landscape can be considered both as an aesthetical and ethical way of reflecting on the concept of reality in a highly virtual and digital world and time like the present age. As docufictional novels oscillate constantly between fact and fiction, they always raise the fundamental issue of the narratibility of factual events within a fictional environment. For this purpose docufictional novels use documentary as well as fictional strategies in equal measure and interweave them with the help of intramedial, intermedial and transmedial approaches. The projects goal is to survey the various forms and functions of docufictional practices in literary texts in a systematic way by taking theories of media, cultural and literary studies and contemporary ethics into account. Thus, eventually a poetics of docufictional modes of narration in contemporary German literature can be developed.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants