Postmodern metafiction revisited
Item
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Title
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Postmodern metafiction revisited
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:c4163cb1e987:11630
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identifier
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12238
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Creator
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Athanasiou Krikelis, Lissi,
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Contributor
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Mary Ann Caws
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Date
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2013
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Comparative literature | American literature | Modern literature | literary theory | metaautobiography | metafiction | narrative | postmodernism
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Abstract
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By its ostensible definition, metafiction is fiction that dramatizes its own construction, proffering constant reminders of its artificiality. The term "metafiction," however, is hardly transparent. "Metafiction" is in danger of having an array of definitions, and, because it is believed to be equated with postmodern fiction, it is often associated with the literature of the eighties and therefore appears outdated. Through an examination of various novels mainly from the twentieth century and literature of the West, this dissertation unifies the multiple definitions that have been assigned to the term and provides a typology that facilitates the identification of the metafictional novel. In addition, this dissertation revisits certain assumptions that have clung to the term arbitrarily, namely that metafiction is ahistorical and apolitical because it is self-referential. Beginning with a theoretical approach that views metafiction as a postmodern phenomenon borrowing from structural and post-structural thought, this study comparatively explores metafiction's most recent manifestations and concludes by questioning metafiction's affinity to postmodernism.;Moreover, this study identifies and explores two new examples of metafiction, the metaautobiographical novel and the post-millenium metafictional novel. The metaautobiographical novel is a hybrid genre, where a fictional author-character reconstructs their biographical record through the act of writing fiction. For a metaautobiographical protagonist, fiction cannot define the self nor write the past, but is bound to reinvent both, thus turning itself into a what-if version of the protagonist's reality. In the wake of conversations that explore the potential death of postmodernity, post-millennium (or post-technological) metafiction can be contrasted to postmodern metafiction. It deviates from postmodern practices by responding to technology and by combining its astute fictionality with the dramatic realization that fictionality and reality converge in the realm of fiction. Whereas postmodern metafiction projects that the world may be a fictional construction, post-millenium metafiction proclaims that even highly self-reflexive texts share a profound relation with the world, influencing and affecting what lies beyond them.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Comparative Literature
