Ralph Clare, an associate professor in the Department of English, published the essay Becoming Autotheory in the Arizona Quarterly.
The essay considers the rise and popularity of contemporary “autofiction”– fiction that blurs the boundary between the real and fictional self or author — and makes the case for the emergence of “autotheory.” Looking at works by Chris Krauss and Maggie Nelson, the essay demonstrates that autotheory is a new literary sub-genre in which autofiction directly engages with, and is transformed by, critical theory.