Metafiction  

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In the [[1950s]], several French novelists published works whose styles were collectively dubbed "[[nouveau roman]]", meaning "new novel". These "new novels" were characterized by their bending of [[Literary genre|genre]] and [[Stylistics (linguistics)|style]] and often included elements of metafiction. In the [[1950s]], several French novelists published works whose styles were collectively dubbed "[[nouveau roman]]", meaning "new novel". These "new novels" were characterized by their bending of [[Literary genre|genre]] and [[Stylistics (linguistics)|style]] and often included elements of metafiction.
-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''.+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]]''.
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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.

In the 1950s, several French novelists published works whose styles were collectively dubbed "nouveau roman", meaning "new novel". These "new novels" were characterized by their bending of genre and style and often included elements of metafiction.

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.

Contents

Related

experimental fiction - fabulation - fourth wall - metafilm - postmodern literature - self-consciousness - self-referentiality


Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921)

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Theory

Robert Scholes


Various devices of metafiction

Some common metafictive devices include:

Contemporary author Paul Auster has made metafiction the central focus of his writing and is probably the best known active novelist specialising in the genre.

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 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

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 as exercises in metafiction.

According to Paul de Man all fiction is metafictional, since all works of literature are concerned with language and literature itself.

Some elements of metafiction are similar to devices used in metafilm techniques.

Movies

Charlie Kaufman is a screenwriter who often uses this narrative technique. In the film Adaptation, his character Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicolas Cage) tortuously attempts to write a screenplay adapted from the book The Orchid Thief, only to come to the realization that such an adaptation is impossible. Many plot devices used throughout the film are verbalized by Kaufman as he develops a screenplay, and the screenplay which eventually results is Adaptation itself.

Some more examples of metafiction:

See also

Bibliography




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Metafiction" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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