Autofiction is a term used in literary criticism to refer to a form of fictionalized autobiography. Serge Doubrovsky coined the term in 1977 with reference to his novel Fils. Autofiction combines two paradoxically contradictory styles: that of autobiography, and fiction. An author may decide to recount his/her life in the third person, to modify significant details or 'characters', using fiction in the service of a search for self. It has parallels with faction, a genre devised by Truman Capote to describe his novel In Cold Blood.