Floating (a novel) and writing and not writing a novel called floating (an essay)

This thesis comprises a fictional novel, Floating, and a critical essay. The essay explores the borderlines between autobiographical writing (including memoir) and fiction. Using autobiographical narrative, the essay explores the inspiration and influences for writing the novel, Floating. It considers authors’ attitudes to autobiography in fiction, drawing on the work of Jessie Kesson before examining the literary techniques used by three contemporary authors: Jeanette Winterson, Janice Galloway and Jackie Kay. It considers particular challenges of writing autobiographically including: narrative perspective, identity, truth and invention. The novel engages with themes arising in the essay, particularly those relating to the creation and assumption of identity through recounting memory