The article analyses the disintegration of hybrid genres, a major trend that has been taking shape in French literature in recent decades. Having exhausted the resources for hybridization of genres and survived the ‘death of the author’ period, French literature is searching for new ways to rejuvenate and refresh its genre forms. One option is convergence with other national literary tradition, in order to reconsider its own genre hierarchy and establish a new status of the writing individual between the autobiography and the novel. Particularly interesting in this regard is the attempt to overcome a genre crisis by the French writer Philippe Forest (born in 1962), who draws on the traditions of French avant-garde novels and the Japanese ‘I-novel’ (shôsetsu). The new genre distinguishes itself through special narration forms, the particular meaning of an event, and a certain balance between the imaginary and factual in Forest’s prose.