Fictional Documentarism: The Conceptualization of a Genre

Public PhD defence by Jeppe Barnwell.

 

This dissertation introduces fictional documentarism as a genre that mimics factual documents while openly signaling its invented nature. Tracing the origin of the concept in the work of the Danish author Peter Seeberg (1925–1999) and extending it across various traditions of European literature, it shows how such texts challenge the boundaries between fiction and documentation.

Through analyses of literary works and media ranging from the historical avant-garde to contemporary examples of AI-generated images on social media, the dissertation demonstrates how fictional documentarism reshapes questions of representation, authenticity, and ethics, underscoring its relevance in a media landscape where the distinction between fact and fiction is increasingly unstable.

 

Assessment committee

  • Professor Søren Frank, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)
  • Professor Françoise Lavocat, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France
  • Professor Kristina Malmio, University of Helsinki, Finland

Supervisors

  • Associate Professor Torben Jelsbak, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Senior Researcher Karen Skovgaard-Petersen, Society for Danish Language and Literature, Denmark

Moderator of the defence

  • Associate Professor Tobias Skiveren, University of Copenhagen, Denmark


Email to gain access to the thesis: jb@dsl.dk. You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy.