The distinction between metafiction and meta-metafiction can be seen in a comparison of the beginnings of two metafictional texts: Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller (1979) and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (1962). Traveller exemplifies the metafictional mode of writing in what Linda Hutcheon identifies as its “overt” form of self-awareness enacted through its explicit reference to the text’s title (Narcissistic Narrative 7). However, there is no additional degree of commentary about the self-reflexive nature of the text in the first chapter; this only appears later on in a more covert way. On the contrary, the beginning of Pale Fire explicitly begins with layers of commentary, exemplifying a meta-metafictional mode of writing. Near the start of the Foreword (this term is used interchangeably with “Preface” in the novel), the narrator, Charles Kinbote, comments that “Frank has acknowledged the safe return of the galleys I had been sent here and has asked me to mention in my Preface—and this I willingly do—that I alone am responsible for any mistakes in my commentary” (Nabokov 15). It is evident that Kinbote’s comment illustrates a self-reflexive mode of narration as he records what another character “has asked [him] to mention in [his] Preface,” (Nabokov 15) thus referencing the writing of the Preface in the Preface itself. However, the self-reflexivity of his comment does not stop there. Kinbote’s mention of the “mistakes in [his] commentary” (Nabokov 15) refers to the “Commentary” section of the novel. The Commentary is also narrated and supposedly written by Kinbote as a commentary on the poem “Pale Fire” by the character John Shade. These textual cues show us that Pale Fire contains at least two layers of commen...
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...ing, not literary genres, which belong to the broader mode of fictional writing. In the same way, meta-metafiction belongs to the broader mode of metafictional writing. These modes of writing are not mutually exclusive to each other, but indicate different degrees of self-reflexivity that can be simultaneously present within the same text. In order to shift from one degree of self-reflexivity to another, the text alternately exposes and conceals the frames of reference—the literary structures—that organise the reader’s experience and interpretation of fictional texts. These frames can range from literary conventions such as the “happily ever after” ending in a fairy tale, to narrative techniques such as stream of consciousness narration in modernist novels like Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), to the framing device of stories within stories in metafiction.
Waugh, Patricia. "What is Metafiction and why are they saying Such Horrible Things About It?" Metafiction. Ed. Mark Currie. Harlow: Longman, 1995. 39-54.
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To understand why Hitchcock believed that he should never have put in a flashback that was a lie, requires an understanding of the traditional construction of narrativity. Defined by Braudy and Cohen as “the process by which a perceiver actively constructs a story from the fictional data provided by the narrative medium” (83), narrativity relies on the relationships between narrative structure, narrator or narration, and the narratee.
This theory is not only credible in literature, to discuss the intentions of an author, but is also effectively used in film, to discuss the intentions of a director. One benefit of this theory is that it can help with many literary problems. For example, Freudian critics not only “stress distinction between the conscious and the unconscious”, but also uncover “the unconscious motives of characters” as well as see “an embodiment of classic psychoanalytic conditions” within literary works (Barry 101). By drawing connections between concepts in the text, we are able to further enrich our understanding of the work and, if we plan to discuss it with others, are able to yield a meaningful, coherent interpretation of the
In the words of Michael O’Shaughnessy, ‘narratives, or stories, are a basic way of making sense of our experience’ (1999: 266). As a society and a culture, we use stories to comprehend and share our experiences, typically by constructing them with a beginning, middle and an end. In fact, the order that a narrative is structured will directly impact the way it is understood, particularly across cultures. This idea originated through Claude Lévi-Strauss’s concept of structuralism in anthropology which ‘is concerned with uncovering the common structural principles underlying specific and historically variable cultures and myth’ in pre-industrial societies (Strinati 2003: 85). In terms of media studies, structuralism’s inherent objective is to dig beneath the surface of a media text to identify how the structure of a narrative contributes to it’s meaning. Structuralism encompasses a large range of analytical tools, however, this essay will examine Joseph Campbell’s monomyth and Claude Lévi-Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions. Through analysis of Victor Fleming’s film, The Wizard of Oz (1939), it will be shown that although the monomyth and binary oppositions are useful tools with which to unveil how meaning is generated in this text, structuralism can undermine the audience’s ability to engage with their own interpretations of the film.
Through the use of Shelley’s frame narrative, the reader was offered multiple perspectives to one text. Because of the multiple views, the readers change their attitudes and search for a deeper meaning behind the frame narrative. Frankenstein’s story related to Walton’s in the same way that the monster related to Victor’s narrative. By using Walton as the primary narrator, the author builds suspense and presents the readers with more details about the narrators in their emotions and drives.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Compact Ed. New York: Longman, 2013. 268-98. Print.
Theo D’haen, a professor at the University of Leuven, synthesizes that a postmodernist writer is one who uses a “combination of any number of techniques that were seen as innovative and perhaps even transgressive, especially with regard to all forms of referentiality, be it reference to some “real” reality as in realism or to a “psychological” reality as in modernism”(Theo D’haen 272). Following this explanation, the self-reflectiveness, interdependency, parody and mimetic reality that readers are exposed to when reading a metafictional piece, branches into the different interpretations presented by D’haen: a ‘real’ reality and a ‘psychological’ reality. The act of judging any work of art in relation to its representation of reality is a parallel to the reader’s assimilation of a mimetic reality, acknowledged by a physiological th...
Of the many literary conventions used to describe JM Coetzee's Foe, one of the more commonly written about is metafiction. Since about 1970, the term metafiction has been used widely to discuss works of post-modern fiction and has been the source of heated debate on whether its employ marks the death or the rebirth of the novel. A dominant theme in post-modern fiction, the term "metafiction" has been defined by literary critics in multiple ways. John Barth offers perhaps the most simplified definition: metafiction is "a novel that imitates a novel rather than the real world." Patricia Waugh extends our understanding to add that it is "fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to itself as an artifact to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality." According to these definitions, metafiction concerns itself not with the creation of a new narra...
Narratology divides a ‘narrative into story and narration’. (Cohan et al., 1988, p. 53) The three main figures that contribute a considerable amount of research to this theory are Gerard Genette, Aristotle and Vladimir Propp. This essay will focus on how Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights can be fully appreciated and understood when the theory is applied to the text. Firstly, I will focus on the components of narration Genette identifies that enhance a reader’s experience of the text. Secondly, I will discuss the three key elements in a plot that Aristotle recognises and apply these to Heathcliff’s character. In the final section I will apply part of the seven ‘spheres of action’, Propp categorises, to Heathcliff’s character. However, not all of Narratology can be applied to a text. This raises the question; does this hinder a readers understanding and/or appreciation of the text? This paper will also address this issue.
The traditional short story is a genre of a prose. It is a fiction work that presents a world in the moment of an unexpected change. The traditional short story obeys some rules, such as the unexpected change and major events with detail. The modern short story is a revolution which is based on the traditional short story. In other words, if the traditional short story is in the first floor, the modern short story is in the second floor. Therefore, the modern short story still obeys some rules that the traditional short story obeys, and breaks some rules that the traditional short story obeys. One rule that the modern short story still uses is the unexpected change. The rules broken by the modern short story are that the major events are not detailed, and that the border between the real world and the fiction world. This paper first talks about the unexcepted change and uses the examples of “Eveline” and “The Open Window.” Then, this paper talks about major events with detail, and uses the examples of “Lottery,” “The Open Window” and “Hills Like White Elephants.” Finally, this paper talks about the meta-literary and the border between the real world and the fiction