METAFICTION

Although implicit in many other types of fictional works, self-reflexivity often

becomes the dominant subject of postmodern fiction. The narrator of a metafictional

work will call attention to the writing process itself. The reader is never to forget that

what she is reading is constructed--not natural, not "real." She is never to get "lost" in

the story.

Explicit use of metafictional technique stems from the modernist questioning of

consciousness and 'reality.' Attempting to defend twentieth century metafiction,

theorists link metafictional technique to older literary works. Some supporters trace

self-reflexivity as far back as Miguel Cervantes' fifteenth century novel, DON

QUIXOTE.

Definitions:

Employing the term "metafiction" to refer to modern works that are radically self-

reflexive as well as to works that contain only a few lines of self-consciousness

creates ambiguitity. In her review of Patricia Waugh's METAFICTION: THE

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SELF-CONSCIOUS FICTION (1984), Ann

Jefferson argues that "the trouble is that Waugh cannot have it both ways, and present

metafiction both as an inherent characteristic of narrative fiction and as a response to

the contemporary social and cultural vision" (574). Other theorists often employ the

same double definition of metafiction, which makes it difficult to know whether his or

her definition refers to contemporary metafiction or to all works containing self-

reflexivity. John Barth contributes a short blanket definition of metafiction as being a

"novel that imitates a novel rather than the real world" (qtd. in Currie 161).

Patricia Waugh also provides a comprehensive definition by describing metafiction as

"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" (2). Metafictional works, she suggests, are those which "explore a theory

of writing fiction through the practice of writing fiction" (2). Mark Currie highlights

current metafiction's self-critical tendency by depicting it as "a borderline discourse, a

kind of writing which places itself on the border between fiction and criticism, which

takes the border as its subject" (2). Yet, he too encompasses works that are

marginally metafictional by proposing that, "to see the dramatized narrator or novelist

as metanarrative devices is to interpret a substantial proportion of

fiction as meta-fiction" (4).

Despite the subtle differences between their definitions, most theorists agree that

metafiction cannot be classified as a genre nor as the definitive mode of postmodern

fiction. They suggest that metafiction display "a self-reflexivity prompted by the

author's awareness of the theory underlying the construction of fictional works,"

without dividing contemporary metafiction from older works containing similar self-

reflexive techniques (Waugh 2).

Spectrum of Metafictional Techniques:

Further individuating the differences between metafictional characteristics present in

post-modern fiction becomes even more complicated because some self-reflexive

works also fall under more radical definitions. Some contemporary metafiction can

also be called surfiction, antifiction, fabulation, neo-baroque fiction, post-modernist

fiction, introverted narrative, irrealism, or as the self-begetting novel (Waugh 13).

Characteristics:

Although characteristics of metafiction vary as widely as the spectrum of techniques

used within them, a pattern of several common traits can be traced. These techniques

often appear in combination, but also can appear singularly. Metafiction often

employs intertextual references and allusions by

examining fictional systems

incorporating aspects of both theory and criticism

creating biographies of imaginary writers

presenting and discussing fictional works of an imaginary character

Authors of metafiction often violate narrative levels by

intruding to comment on writing

involving his or herself with fictional characters

directly addressing the reader

openly questioning how narrative assumptions and conventions transform and

filter reality, trying to ultimately prove that no singular truths or meanings

exist

Metafiction also uses unconventional and experimental techniques by

rejecting conventional plot

refusing to attempt to become "real life"

subverting conventions to transform 'reality' into a highly suspect concept

flaunting and exaggerating foundations of their instability (Waugh 5)

displaying reflexivity (the dimension present in all literary texts and also

central to all literary analysis, a function which enables the reader to understand

the processes by which he or she reads the world as a text)

Works Cited:

Currie, Mark, ed. METAFICTION. New York: Longman, 1995.

Jefferson. Ann. "Patricia Waugh, Metafiction The Theory and Practice of Self-

conscious Fiction." POETICS TODAY. 7:3 (1986): 574-6.

Hutcheon, Linda. " "The Pastime of Past Time": Fiction, History, Historiographic

Metafiction." GENRE XX (Fall-Winter 1987).

Ommundenson, Wenche. METAFICTIONS? REFLEXIVITY IN

CONTEMPORARY TEXTS. Australia: Melbourne UP, 1993.

Waugh, Patricia. METAFICTION: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SELF-

CONSCIOUS FICTION. London: Methuen, 1984.

Selected Bibliography:

Barth, John. "The literature of exhaustion." METAFICTION. Ed. Mark Currie. New

York: Longman, 1995. 161-172.

Dipple, Elizabeth. "A novel which is a machine for generating interpretations."

METAFICTION. Ed. Mark Currie. New York: Longman, 1995. 221-245.

Hutcheon, Linda. NARCISSISTIC NARRATIVE: THE METAFICTIONAL

PARADOX. Methuen, 1980.

McCaffery, Larry. "The art of metafiction." METAFICTION. Ed. Mark Currie. New

York: Longman, 1995. 181-193.

Scholes, Robert. "Metafiction." METAFICTION Ed. Mark Currie. New

York: Longman, 1995. 21-38.