Metafiction
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
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.
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
