La verdad de Javier Cercas

In the short tale La verdad de Agamenón by Javier Cercas, published in 2002 and in 2006, the Doppelgänger topic is inserted into an autofictive framework; this seems to allow an interpretation of the tale as a metaliterary representation of the autofiction. Starting from a thematic source (a Pascal's quote included in the «relato real» Pascal y las caras, 2000), "La verdad de Agamenón" develops a change of roles between two identical and homonymous Javier Cercas: the conflict between the protagonist and his doppelganger embodies the dichotomy of the author and the literary Self, questioning the difference between these two categories. The change of the title in the second edition/variation reflects a resignification: La verdad represents the freedom of the Self from the limits of the factual reality and offers an image of the autofiction as a quest for an ideal reality; whereas La verdad de Agamenón place this literary reflection into an historical and political field, defending the freedom of writing as a way to rebel from the official History.