Thinking (Im)Possibilities: Cognitive Acts of Imagination and Autofictional Books

Autofiction often interweaves the (phenomenologically) real and the unreal. It is definitionally in some way about the author as a real-life person but also frequently features elements that are impossible by real-life standards, or at least seem highly unlikely. This article argues that autofiction provides a training ground for imaginative acts and has the potential to change our understanding of what is possible, not only in literature but also in life. This article substantiates this hypothesis by integrating models from Text World Theory, Unnatural Narratology, and a Predictive-Processing account of reading, as well as neuroscientific research on the default mode network and on literary writing and reading. The article finally draws on reader responses from the platform “Goodreads” as tentative evidence for how autofictional texts affect intuitions about the (im)possible.