Metafiction
Metafiction is a type of
fiction which self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction.
It is the term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. It usually involves
irony and is self-reflective. It can be compared to presentational theatre in a sense; presentational theatre does not let the audience forget they are viewing a play, and metafiction does not let the readers forget they are reading a work of fiction.
Metafiction is primarily associated with Modernist and Postmodernist literature but can be found at least as far back as
Cervantes'
Don Quixote and even
Chaucer's 14th Century
Canterbury Tales.
It came to prominence in the early
1960s through such authors as
John Barth,
Robert Coover, and
William H. Gass. The classic examples from the time include: Barth's
Lost in the Funhouse, Wheen's "Yellow is the Colour of My Banana", Coover's "The Babysitter" and "The Magic Poker", and Gass's
Willie Master's Lonesome Wife.
Some common metafictive devices include:
* A novel about a person writing a novel.
* A novel about a person reading a novel.
* A story that addresses the specific conventions of story, such as title, paragraphing or plots.
* A
non-linear novel, which can be read in some order other than beginning to end.
* Narrative
footnotes, which continue the story while commenting on it.
* A novel in which the author is a character.
* A story that anticipates the reader's reaction to the story.
* Characters who do things because those actions are what they would expect from characters in a story.
* Characters who express awareness that they are in a work of fiction. (also known as breaking the
fourth wall.)
* A work of fiction within a fiction.
Metafiction may figure for only a moment in a story, as when "Roger" makes a brief appearance in
Roger Zelazny's
Chronicles of Amber, or it may be central to the work, as in
Tristram Shandy.
Metafiction is a device heavily involved in postmodernist literature. Examples such as
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by
Italo Calvino, "a novel about a person reading a novel" as above, can be seen solely as exercises in metafiction.
Elements of metafiction are also present in the work of cartoonist
Tex Avery, whose groundbreaking animation in the 1940s often featured self-referential dialogue and plot points. Another notable example of this is
Duck Amuck, directed by
Chuck Jones.
Literature
* Waugh, Patricia,
Metafiction. The Theory and Practice of Self-conscious Fiction, Routledge 1988, ISBN 0415030064
* Hutcheon, Linda,
Narcissistic Narrative. The Metafictional Paradox, Routledge 1991, ISBN 041506567
Examples
See
List of metafictional texts*
List of metafictional texts*
Fourth wall*
Frame tale*
Fictional fictional character*
Story within a story*
Show within a show
