Memory, Hybrid Genres and Ambiguity in Nona Fernández’s La dimensión desconocida

Abstract

This paper investigates the relation between hybrid genres and memory in Nona Fernandez’ novel La dimensión desconocida (2016), which shifts between facts and fiction. Firstly, the hybrid genres of autofiction, docufiction and chronicle will be discussed, as well as the relation between literature and memory. Secondly, these concepts will be used in a narratological analysis of the novel to analyse how these genres affect the representation of individual and collective memory. This paper argues that the hybrid genres enable the representation and reconstruction of the narrator’s incomplete individual memory and the collective memory of the Chilean dictatorship.