Johnson, donald barthelme, john barth, jorge luis borges, or julian barnes. I think perhaps patricia waughs definition of metafiction is the most suitable to understanding its working in literature. Postmodern literature often about language and storytelling because reality itself often seen as linguistically determined, language becomes extremely important thus, often books about books, about language, about how language shapes and interacts with reality we call this characteristic metafiction. The narrator of a metafictional work will call attention to the writing process itself. A major dimension of literary parody that has allowed for a revision of its poetics in the traditional realist as in the postmodern phase of the novel genre, consists. General introduction to the postmodern postmodernism. There is, of course a dissonance between postmodernism capital p and postmodernism lower case. Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, selfreflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. Reflection of time in postmodern literature academic journals. Common themes and techniques of postmodern literature. Today, metafiction is also common in other creative genres and is primarily associated with postmodernism, which came up during the 1960s. The term postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post.
Historiographic metafiction see above is an example of this. The department of literature, area studies and european languages. Selfreflexive narrators especially appear in works of postmodern writers such as vladimir nabokov, john fowles, b. One may either claim that postmodernism is not there. Post modernism, literature, s tylistics, movements. Though the discussion about the relationship between metafiction and postmodernism is heated, generally, the critics agree on the following. Amid the plethora of terms designating literary selfconsciousness fabulation, metafiction, surfiction, antimimetic fiction, metanarration, postmodernist fiction.
A term originally coined by linda hutcheon, in a poetics of postmodernism, historiographic metafiction includes those postmodern works, usually popular novels, which are both intensely selfreflexive and paradoxically lay claim to historical events and personages. Historiographic metafiction literary theory and criticism. In other words, fiction that thinks, and even talks, about itself. Metafiction and jm coetzees foe michigan state university. In terms of story, lost in the funhouse is a rather simple tale that deals with a family trip to an amusement park and specifically, the funhouse. This lesson compares postmodernism to modernism, provides a synopsis of thinkers and philosophers whose ideas contributed to the development of postmodernism. Metafiction and postmodernism request pdf researchgate. Metafiction is a prime example of the selfaware vibe we often find in postmodernism. Any text that draws the readers attention to its process of construction by frustrating his or her conventional expectations of. Postmodern novels and novelists literary theory and. If the book youre reading acknowledges itself as a book, thats metafiction. This example is the fact that there is no certain ending of the book and the reader is able to interpret the ending in whatever way they see fit. In order to discuss the idea of history as metafiction, this paper has.
Meta means about, so metafiction is fiction that is about fiction. In providing a critique of their own methods of construction, such writings not only examine the fundamental structures of narrative fiction, they also explore the. Thus metafiction can be described as fiction about the nature and purpose of fiction. The reader is never to forget that what she is reading is constructed. Learn about how postmodernism in literature rejects many literary conventions and embraces new ones in. The example of postmodernism in the handmaids tale relates to qualifiers three and four in the above list. For example, instead of the modernist quest for meaning in a chaotic world, the postmodern author diverts, often playfully, the possibility of meaning. This paper consists in lecture notes and materials for a postgraduate course on metafiction at the university of zaragoza 1991. Metafiction and the poetics of childre ns literature geoff moss bio my starting point is the question.
Some hold that scholes coined the term metafiction in fabulation and metafiction it may emphasize structural, formal, behavioral, or philosophical qualities, but most writers of metafiction are thoroughly aware of all these possibilities and are likely to have experimented with all of them. Historiographic metafiction is one kind of postmodern novel which rejects projecting present beliefs and standards onto the past and asserts the specificity and particularity of the individual past event. Postmodernism and reflexivity, appendixes and a bibliography of criticism. Temporal distortion in postmodern fiction is used in a variety of ways, often for the sake of irony. Are you not filled with joy to know that you will live forever, after a manner.
At a time when the idea of selfreflexive art has become commonplace, if not itself a kind of established convention, it may be useful to reconsider the original appearance in contemporary literature of what came to be called metafiction. Pdf the parodic discourse of metafiction salwa karouielounelli. The two terms are closely related in the literary history. Definitions metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which selfconsciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. Thus a work of literature which is conscious of its own form, structure and story, it will be known as metafiction. This paper considers key tendencies in postmodern literature and explores the. Metafiction is 100% aware of the fact that its fictionsome literature may try to be naturalistic or realistic, but postmodernism doesnt hide what it is. Forms and functions of metafiction publish your masters. One story that connects and explains all of humanity. Common themes and techniques of postmodern literature of. The term postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of postworld war ii literature, relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators. Not only was this strain of american fictiontaken up by several. The new york trilogy is a particular form of postmodern detective fiction which still uses wellknown elements of the detective novel the classical and hardboiled varieties, for example but also creates a new form that links the traditional features of the genre with the experimental, metafictional and ironic features of postmodernism. If postmodernism is a universal human dispo sition the propensity for now and then knocking away all given supports and for finding compensation in raiding the past then postmodernism.
Judith butlers use of the concept of performativity, for example, has been extremely influential on postmodernism but i have chosen to discuss her in the modules under gender and sex. Susan barton, foe, 58 of the many literary conventions used to describe jm coetzees foe, one of the more commonly written about is metafiction. Created using powtoon free sign up at create animated videos and animated presentations for free. Do metafictional texts have any place in childrens literature. Postmodern literature is a type of literature that came to prominence after world war ii. Postmodern society is highly diverse, with no grand narrative guiding its development. According to hutcheon, in a poetics of postmodernism, works of historiographic metafiction are those wellknown and popular novels which are both intensely selfreflexive and yet paradoxically also lay claim to historical events and personages. This essay strives to deal with the origin and definition of metafiction, and then to probe into the relation between the two terms.
The term is closely associated with works of postmodern literature, usually novels. Metafiction is a form of literature that emphasizes its own constructedness in a way that continually reminds the reader to be aware that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is a style of prose narrative in which attention is directed to the process of fictive composition. Postmodernism is notoriously difficult to define and delimit.
What we tend to call postmodernism in literature today is usually characterized by intense selfreflexivity and overtly parodic inter textuality. The act of writing a bout writing or making readers aware of the. This style of experimental literature emerged strongly in the united states in the 1960s through the writings of authors such as kurt vonnegut, thomas pynchon, and john barth. There are two poles when dealing with postmodernism. Metafiction oxford research encyclopedia of literature. Historiographic metafiction works to situate itself within historical discourse without surrendering its autonomy as fiction. Project muse metafiction and the poetics of childrens. This is categorically a postmodern art form that relies heavily on textual play, parody and historical re. Metafiction although implicit in many other types of fictional works, selfreflexivity often becomes the dominant subject of postmodern fiction. Thus metafiction is a genre of english literature which emphasizes the readers to focus on the novel itself. The reader is never to forget that what she is reading is constructednot natural, not real.
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