![]() Metafictional works, she suggests, are those which "explore a theory of writing fiction through the practice of writing fiction" (2). 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). John Barth contributesa short blanket definition of metafiction as being a "novel that imitatesa novel rather than the real world" (qtd. Other theorists oftenemploy the same double definition of metafiction, which makes it difficultto know whether his or her definition refers to contemporary metafictionor to all works containing self-reflexivity. 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 responseto the contemporary social and cultural vision" (574). ![]() 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.Įxplicit 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.Įmploying 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. ![]() Although implicit in many other types of fictional works, self-reflexivity often becomes the dominant subject of postmodern fiction. ![]()
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