metafiction
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METAFICTION. Lic . Mariana Mussetta Literary Studies Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa UTN FRVM. Las Meninas Diego Velazquez 1656. Escaping Criticism Pere Borrell del Caso 1874. Attempts to define metafiction. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
METAFICTION
Lic. Mariana Mussetta
Literary Studies
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
UTN FRVMLic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Las MeninasDiego Velazquez1656
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Escaping CriticismPere Borrell del Caso1874
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Attempts to define metafiction
“Metafiction is 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.” (Patricia Waugh)
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Attempts to define metafiction
“The simple notion that language passively reflects a coherent,
meaningful and objective world is no longer tenable. Language is an
independent, self-contained system which generates its own 'meanings.”
(Patricia Waugh)Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN.
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Attempts to define metafiction
“Metafiction is a borderline discourse, a kind of writing which places itself on the
border between fiction and criticism, which takes the
border as its subject." (Mark Currie)
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Attempts to define metafiction
“A metafictional novel is a novel that imitates a novel
rather than the real world.” (John Barth)
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Attempts to define metafiction
“Metafiction is self-conscious, introspective, introverted, narcissistic or
auto-representational.” (Mark Currie)
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Attempts to define metafiction
“Metafiction is a combination of
experimental writing with existential questioning.”
(Robert Scholes)Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN.
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Metafiction is characterized by:
Fictionality of the world outside the text Emphasis on the writing being a creation, a
construction, not the representation or the imitation of reality
Foregrounding of the instability of fictional worlds leading to an instability of the so-called “real life”
Reconstruction of myths/ old stories Mirror-theme: Reflection/ imitation/ delusion
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Translation questioning the unreliability of the narrator/ translator
Stress on the playfulness of languageUse of fictional references and allusions
to examine fictional systemsLiterary criticism (self-critical tendency) Art about art, fiction about fiction about
fiction
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Irony, parody and criticismReflection on the functions and
construction of writing, reading, rewriting, rereading, and interpreting
Discussion of fictional works of an imaginary character
Creation of biographies of imaginary writers
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Experimental techniques and violation of narrative levels (frame breaking)
Rejection of a traditional plotForegrounding of the instability of
fictional worldsBlurring and mixing of different
ontological levelsGraphic experimentation
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Use of fictional references and allusions in order to:
Examine fictional systemsReinforce the idea that a text is
being createdTake a theoretical and critical
position
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Some metafictional writers: Miguel de Unamuno Jorge Luis Borges Julio Cortazar Isaac Asimov John Barth A. S. Byatt Italo Calvino J. M. Coetzee Umberto Eco John Fowles
John Irving Doris Lessing Vladimir Nabokov Salman Rushdie José Saramago Paul Auster Kurt Vonnegut Thomas Pynchon
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.
Other terms for contemporary metafiction:
Surfiction (Federman) Critifiction (Federman) Antifiction Fabulation (Scholes) Neo-baroque fiction Post-modernist fiction Introverted novel Irrealism Self-begetting novel Experimental writing Historiographic metafiction
Lic. Mariana Mussetta. Literary Studies. UTN. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa.