ABSTRACT

Vigdis Hjorth’s Will and Testament can be read as autofiction in the sense that it is relevantly based on the author’s experience, despite the fictional elaborations surrounding the narrator’s identity, and because it involves a critique of what it means for the trauma victim to communicate their version of traumatic experience within a contested space. Since it recounts the narrator’s experience of recovering from a childhood abuse, it can also be read as testimony. Hjorth actively questions the value of an individual’s narrative truth and how it ought to be received by others in circumstances where the victim cannot recall the events with specificity, and in which the perpetrator of the abuse denies it occurred. Moreover, it situates such an account within the context of collective truths—a family’s narrative of itself, and public and historical narratives about which version of events is to be believed and prevail.

摘要

Vigdis Hjorth 的遗嘱和遗嘱尽管围绕叙述者的身份进行了虚构的阐述，但它可以被解读为自述小说，因为它是基于作者的经验，并且因为它涉及对创伤受害者在一个范围内传达他们的创伤经历版本意味着什么的批评有争议的空间。由于它讲述了叙述者从童年虐待中恢复过来的经历，它也可以被解读为证词。Hjorth 积极质疑个人叙述真相的价值，以及在受害者无法具体回忆事件并且施虐者否认发生的情况下，其他人应该如何接受它。此外，它将这样的叙述置于集体真理的背景下——一个家庭对自身的叙述，