French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Genon, Novel, Diary, Autofiction : Hervé Guibert in His Genres
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Arnaud Genon
Novel, Diary, Autofiction : Hervé Guibert in His Genres
Paris: Mon Petit éditeur, coll. Sciences Humaines, 2014.
106 pages - ISBN : 9782342028393
14.95 €.
Publisher's overview:
Hervé Guibert's work has often been reduced solely to his AIDS trilogy, in which the narrator acts as an observer of himself and of the slow progression of the virus and its toll on his body. While the author of To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life is undeniably a writer of the "I", it must be noted that this "I" frequently plays with itself and its readers, revealing and concealing itself, asserting itself and hiding, and at times even disappearing. For him, literary genre is invariably a matter of questioning or subversion.
In Novel, Diary, Autofiction: Hervé Guibert in His Genres, Arnaud Genon examines how Guibert's exploration of the boundaries of established genres and his irreverence toward them become a means to destabilize the classical representation of the self and to interrogate the subject and personal identity.
Arnaud Genon holds a Ph.D. in French Literature and is a certified teacher of Modern Literature (Lettres Modernes). He currently teaches literature, philosophy, and French as a foreign language in Germany at the European School of Karlsruhe. A Visiting Scholar with ReFrance (Nottingham Trent University), he has published several books and numerous articles on Hervé Guibert and self-writing in contemporary literature. He is the co-founder of the websites www.herveguibert.net and www.autofiction.org.
Arnaud Genon situates his critical study within the broader tradition of twentieth-century French literary theory and self-writing, a field dedicated to exploring the shifting boundaries between fact and fiction. By examining how Hervé Guibert navigates the novel, the personal diary, and autofiction, this volume engages with longstanding debates about the representation of the self in modern literature. Rather than viewing genre as a rigid framework, Genon illustrates how Guibert treats narrative categories as fluid instruments for philosophical and existential inquiry, challenging readers to rethink the stability of the authorial voice.
This accessible yet rigorous book will particularly benefit scholars, students, and readers interested in contemporary French literature, LGBTQ+ writing, and the evolution of autobiographical forms. It offers valuable critical tools for those investigating how writers use irony, concealment, and formal subversion to address trauma and bodily experience. Researchers focusing on the intersection of literature and identity will find Genon's analysis especially useful for understanding the complex legacy of an author whose work continues to redefine the possibilities of the modern literary ego.