ABSTRACT: Ervin Šinko’s The Novel of a Novel is analysed as an autobiographical and metafictional text as well as a testimony to historical events, namely the escape from fascism and the experience of Stalinism in Moscow between 1935 and 1937. This article addresses the question of genre boundaries and the necessity of hybridising the novel as a genre in order to represent the individual experiences of a left-wing stateless person and émigré that are inseparably intertwined with collective historical events. The analysis further discusses the explicitly articulated demand for the effect of the text, drawing on Matías Martínez’s typology of narrative texts, particularly his distinction between causal and configurational narrative forms.

KEYWORDS: diary; genre theory; autobiography; metafiction; The Novel of a Novel; Moscow Trials; anti-Stalinist literature; transposition of biographical experience

SUMMARY: This article examines Ervin Šinko’s The Novel of a Novel through the lens of genre theory, focusing on its autobiographical and metafictional dimensions and its function as a historical testimony. By analyzing the narrative strategies through which biographical and revolutionary experiences are transformed into novelistic form, the study highlights the need for genre hybridization to articulate the complex position of a left-wing Jewish émigré and stateless intellectual in the context of twentieth-century political upheavals. The analysis is grounded in Matías Martínez’s typology of narrative texts, with particular emphasis on the distinction between causal and configurational narrative modes and their implications for the intended effect of the text.