Metafiction: The theory and concepts of self-conscious fiction.

Contents
1.0 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 3
2.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Background ........................................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................ 6
2.4 Research Aims....................................................................................................................... 6
2.5 Research Questions ............................................................................................................... 6
2.6 Justification ........................................................................................................................... 7
3.0 Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 7
4.0 Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 9
5.0 Research Findings ............................................................................................................... 10
6.0 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 11
7.0 Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 12
References ..................................................................................................................................... 14
 Metafiction: The theory and concepts of self-conscious fiction.

1.0 Abstract
Metafiction is a technique used in narration in which the work calls attention to itself as a work

of fiction. Metafiction suspends the readers’ disbelief by addressing the reader, similar to

breaking the fourth wall in a theater. There are numerous ways in which metafiction is created.

The common methods that the writers use to create metafiction include; using a story within a

story, addressing the reader, a story of a narrator who is also a character, engaging the reader in

the story, or commenting in the story through referencing (Spector and Waugh, 1985).

Metafiction is regarded as a continuation of postmodern literary movement and has emerged as a

literary genre of itself. Using various methods that emphasize the status of a story, the reader

becomes engaged through an increased sense of awareness relating to the relationship between

the story and the reader. Metafiction uses the traditional oral method of storytelling, in which the

storyteller takes the role of the narrator and certain liberties are awarded to him/her (Henry and

Currie, 1996). For instance, the storyteller may change and comment about the tale to make it

meet the intended purpose. When a fictional work is presented by the author, the author is

allowed to depart from the conventional ideas. The reader or audience is left to make conclusions

and challenge the assumptions, or may as well be drawn by the authors’ narrative process.

Metafiction also provides an opportunity for the female and multi-cultural writers to incorporate

aspects of folk tales, mythology, and traditional storytelling within Western literature, which

facilitates a cultural expression within what was believed to be a more exclusive and rigid

domain (Booth, 1984). With this concept of metafiction taking dominance in most literary works,

it is a concept that most of the authors and readers prefer because of its impact in developing
literature. Metafiction is one of the concepts that make most of the authors come up with

interesting work for the readers (Belloc, 1967).

Key Words

Metafiction, Literature, self-consciousness, Literary Works, Fiction Narration, Realism

2.0 Introduction

2.1 Overview

At the beginning of the twentieth-century self-consciousness intensification in the humanistic

disciplines is the idea that minimized the most tangible essence; all are made of written discourse

or language. George Steiner defines this as language revolution or language turn. Language has

the power to either reveal or conceal. Metafiction is both modern and postmodern (Hauptman

and Scholes, 1980). Most pieces of literary works from different cultures are self-referential and

therefore self-conscious. Through the telling of the story by the narrator and the words of the

characters, such self-conscious narration reflects the fact that it is fiction. The fiction is given life

by the words and only for the lifetime of the narrative. According to Inger Christensen, the self-

conscious narrative turns its focus upon the literary work itself. Metafiction or self-referential,

narrative appears regularly in most of the literature, even in tales, legends and myths. Self-

consciousness is predicted to be old as human self-consciousness which implies that it is as old

as man (Currie, 2016).

Metafiction is significant in human life because our engagement with culture and history are

centered on a story. Our identities are determined by the kind of stories that we accept. When

stories interact, we embark on a metafictional relationship with our environment (Daldry, 2017).
The interaction of the stories influences changes in our definition of cultures and us. Metafiction

is inherently important but not judgmental. The correspondence between active engagement and

culture and active engagement and meta-art lies in a quest for understanding and knowledge;

from which we can establish that the meta arts creates awareness in social discourse and

individual’s understanding (Fischer and Kronik, 1996).

The theories about metafiction and its impacts on human vary, and the general conclusion is that

metafiction is self-reflexive fiction. The fiction communicates the awareness that it is a work of

fiction, and therefore critical of the conventions that are communicated in a story. The

metafiction then illuminates the fictionality if the conventions in a story. Metafiction is not moral

and does not suggest the value for or against social convention. Metafiction, therefore,

recognizes the malleability of various levels of social structures and identities. That is,

metafiction creates and destroys the fiction so that the reader and the author are in cooperative

engagement to achieve coherent meaning (Garcia Landa, 1991).

2.2 Background

In 1970, William H. Glass coined the term metafiction when he wrote his book Fiction and the

Figures of Life. There was increase use in metafiction during that time because most of the

authors had a good understanding of the usefulness of the medium. The understanding of

metafiction led to significant changes n the use of fiction. Formal uncertainty and self-reflexivity

led to due to increased theoretical issues. There were numerous challenges of fiction which

include philosophical, structural, behavioral and formal criticisms. These perspectives are

assimilated by metafiction through fictional processes focusing on only one of the aspects. These

developments in fiction were part of a movement which was the effect of increasing cultural and

self-consciousness on how humans mediate construct and reflect their world experiences. Several
novelists rejected the idea of fiction because of these developments. The new notion became the

creation of a medium that does not portray the real world through the use of a language. The

language was viewed as a self-contained and independent system that generates its meanings and

a medium of mediating information to the world.

2.3 Problem Statement

In the early nineteenth century, most of the authors were using fiction as the main medium for

expressing their thoughts. Most of the literary works were characterized by fiction. Although

fiction had a significant impact on creating a relationship between the author and the reader,

some of the authors highlighted some weaknesses of this medium. The challenges of fiction led

to numerous developments that led to the emergence of metafiction, which addressed the

challenges of fiction. Metafiction led to tremendous success in the development of literary works

with most of the authors using it as their main medium of mediating knowledge.

2.4 Research Aims

This research will aim at the following outcomes:

 To elaborate on the concept of metafiction

 To explore the different forms of metafiction

 Identify the impacts of metafiction

 To provide examples of the use of metafiction by different authors

2.5 Research Questions

The following questions will help achieve the outlined aims

What is metafiction?
What are the different types of metafiction?

What are the effects of metafiction in a story?

What are the examples of metafiction from different authors?

2.6 Justification

The use of fiction has been one of the most common methods of writing stories in novels. The

use of fiction has led to significant developments in novels, but it also had some shortcomings

which influenced other people to come up with a more advanced medium. Metafiction is an

advancement of fiction because it addresses the shortcomings and provides a better medium of

expressing the stories. Most f the readers and authors do not understand the concept of

metafiction, making most of them to misuse the medium. Understanding the concept of

metafiction is essential to the readers and authors. The readers' aim of understanding metafiction

is that it enables them in developing their novel and making the ideas logical and understandable.

Understanding metafiction by the readers enhances their understanding of the novels by relating

the ideas of the writers to the world. In this research, we look at the concept of metafiction and

its impact on literary works.

3.0 Literature Review

When reading a story, the reader surrenders his mind to the storyteller. In most of the literary

works, the storytellers tell stories that might not be true. The reader has a role of identifying the

errors of the author and recomposes the fictional truth. Wayne C. Booth in his book The Rhetoric

of Fiction (1961) coined the phrase narrative unreliability, and his views were significant in the

development of fiction and metafiction. Though it might sound as postmodern and contemporary

literature, unreliable narration dates back to the infancy of the novel. Once the readers start
doubting the character that guides through the fictional universe, they become aware of the

artificiality of the world. The reflection of fiction as a construct in implicit or explicit terms is

called metafiction and is similar to the unreliable narration. Self-consciousness in metafiction is

one of the oldest literary concepts. John Barth, who is among the first American champions,

readily concedes its unoriginality. Self-consciousness is not a new problem in language. John

Barth can be considered a more general problematic because of his work. The novel is a result of

a form of unconsciousness taking into account its conventionally recognized origins. Tristan

Shandy and Don Quijote are markedly and openly conscious of themselves as written, discourse,

printed, as literature, and as a language more than the modern novel's fathers, they are the

paradigm for most of the contemporary metafiction. What we witness currently could be an

intensification and comeback to linguistic metafiction we find in the modern prose fiction, and

throughout its periodic development.

Waugh’s novel assimilates a variety of discourses that relativize and question each other's

authority. Realism functions by suppressing this dialogue. The conflict of voices and languages

is solved in realistic fiction. Metafiction rejoices and displays the impossibility of such and thus

reveals the identity of a novel as a genre. Metafictional novels are constructed on the principle of

sustained and fundamental opposition. The denominator of metafiction is the creation of fiction

and making a statement about that fiction. The two approaches are held together which breaks

down to the distinction between criticism and creation and merge them into deconstruction and

interpretation. Although this process is available in all fiction, its prominence in novels is unique.

We are living in a historical period that is self-questioning, uncertain, unique, and culturally

pluralistic. Dissatisfaction and breakdown with traditional values are reflected in contemporary

fiction. Novels like James Joyce’s Ulysses and Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse signaled the
emergence of factiousness in novels. Contemporary metafictional is both a contribution and a

response to the sense that history or reality is provisional. The positivist, empiricist and

materialist view of the world in which fiction is premised does not exist. It is surprising that most

novelists have come to reject and question the forms that relate to this reality of chronological

sequence, well-made plot, and rational connection between what characters are and do.

Metafiction enables the reader to engage and enjoy the world within the fiction and observe the

linguistic and textual construction of fiction. The reader is made aware that an act of

consciousness creates an object that was not in existence. However, the reader is reminded that

this object cannot create anything that can exist outside the text. In all the literary fiction, the

author predicts the state of affairs which makes the imaginary world. If the literary work is a real

documentary or historical account, the reader will relate these to determinate individuals existing

historically. In realism, the reader can match them with general type, based on their historical

time. The process is open to abuse because of the similarity in the processes of constructing

fictional texts and historical texts. One of the abuses is reduction and appropriation of historical

particularity.

Most of the readers are upset about metafiction because it employs a large number of text that

challenges tradition. Self-consciousness taunts the reader to drive home the fact the genre is built

on imaginary principle.

4.0 Methodology

The research will use a qualitative approach methodology. The approach will provide

justification of the research topic. In this research data will be collected based on its applicability
in this research. The research topic will influence the choice of research sources. For this

research, I will use secondary sources, mainly books and articles.

5.0 Research Findings

Metafiction is self-conscious fiction and is describes by use of terminologies such as self-

knowledge, self-awareness and self-reflection, and ironic self-distance. Metafiction is not a genre

but underlies all the fictions and can be traced at the unconscious and conscious level of a text.

Metafiction is fictional writing which systematically and self-consciously attracts attention as an

artifact to ask questions about the relationship between reality and fiction. Such writings explore

the possible fiction of the world beyond literary fiction. Metafiction can be found on the division

between literary and fiction criticism.

Metafiction takes different forms depending on the authors’ choice of narration and literary style.

One of the forms of metafiction is explicit and implicit metafiction. In explicit metafiction, the

author uses clear metafictional elements on the text’s surface. The text comments on its

artificiality and is quotable. An example of an explicit metafiction is where the narrator explains

the process of creating the story. Implicit metafiction depends on the form of metafiction on the

ability of the reader to recognize the devices in order to trigger metafictional reading. Another

form of metafiction is direct or indirect metafiction. Indirect metafiction a reference text is

established within the text one is reading. In indirect metafiction, there are metareferences

outside the text. Critical or non-critical metafiction is another type of metafiction. Critical

metafiction aims to find the fictionality or artificiality of the text which is done in postmodernist

fiction. Non-critical metafiction, on the other hand, does not criticize the fictionality or

artificiality of a text. Lastly, generally media-centered or fiction-centered metafiction is another

classification of metafiction. In general media-centered metafiction, there is additional focus on

centered on the authentic stories. In most literary works, the authors use most of the

metafictional forms (Waugh, 2013).

The role of metafiction in a book is to enhance the development of ideas. The supporters of

metafiction assert that metafictional novels have huge significance beyond the fiction by

projecting its inner self-reflective tendencies outwardly. Metafiction allows the readers to

understand the structures of narrative and the experiences of the world. Metafiction also

enhanced the readability of a novel by providing a lot of content that attracts the reader to read

through the many pages of a novel. Metafiction has led to the development in novel writing

because it enhances creativity among the writers (Hammond and Regan, 2006).

6.0 Discussion

Most theorists link metafiction to the old literary works when attempting to defend its evolution.

Some authors trace metafiction to the fifteenth century novel Don Quixote by Miguel Cervante.

Shakespeare's Hamlet and Jane Austin’s Northanger Abbey are also highlighted as some

classical example where metafiction is dominant. Through the study of metafiction, Waugh

indicates that one gives the novel its identity. Linda Hutcheon differentiates histographic

metafiction from metafiction by stating that histographic metafiction is the late modern

metafiction. Histographic metafiction works are concerned about history and are conscious self-

reflexivity (Scholes, 1980). The earliest histories are an amalgamation of both myths and facts.

Postmodernist and modernist questioned the authority of the history by indicating that they

represented the subjective interpretation of the author. Beyond reconnecting fiction and history,

Linda indicates that postmodern fiction implies that rewriting or re-presenting the past in history
and fiction is to prevent it from being teleological and conclusive. Histographic metafiction plays

an important role to achieve this by playing the lies and truth of historical record (Daldry, 2017).

There are three types of contemporary metafiction as identified by Patricia Waugh. According to

John Fowles in The French Lieutenant's Woman, subversion of the function of the omniscient

narrator portrays the first type which Waugh asserts as upsetting a specific convention of the

novel. In the second type, Waugh includes works that present a fictional mode or a parody of

specific work. The third type comprises of works that are less metafictional. These writings

attempt to create alternative linguistic structures (Bradbury, 1990).

Metafiction varies in characteristic and technique, and there are some common characteristics

that reflect in all metafiction. One of the characteristics of metafiction employs illusion and

intertextual references by creating biographies of imaginary authors, examining fictional

systems, presenting fictional work and characters and incorporating both criticism and theory

(Garcia Landa, 1991). Another characteristic of metafiction is that the authors usually violate the

levels of the narrative by directly addressing the reader, intruding to comment on writing, trying

to prove that no meanings and truth exist, and questioning how narrative conventions and

assumptions filter and transform reality. Lastly, metafiction uses experimental and

unconventional techniques by exaggerating and flaunting foundations of their instability,

subverting convention to transform reality, and displaying reflexivity (Durán, 1986).

7.0 Conclusion

Metafiction is a technique used in narration in which the work calls attention to itself as a work

of fiction. Metafiction suspends the readers’ disbelief by addressing the reader, similar to

breaking the fourth wall in a theater. There are numerous ways in which metafiction is created.
The common methods that the writers use to create metafiction include; using a story within a

story, addressing the reader, a story of a narrator who is also a character, engaging the reader in

the story, or commenting in the story through referencing (Littell and Mandell, 2010).

Metafiction is regarded as a continuation of postmodern literary movement and has emerged as a

literary genre of itself. Using various methods that emphasize the status of a story, the reader

becomes engaged through an increased sense of awareness relating to the relationship between

the story and the reader. Metafiction uses the traditional oral method of storytelling, in which the

storyteller takes the role of the narrator and certain liberties are awarded to him/her. For instance,

the storyteller may change and comment about the tale to make it meet the intended purpose.

When a fictional work is presented by the author, the author is allowed to depart from the

conventional ideas. The reader or audience is left to make conclusions and challenge the

assumptions, or may as well be drawn by the authors' narrative process. Metafiction also

provides an opportunity for the female and multi-cultural writers to incorporate aspects of folk

tales, mythology, and traditional storytelling within Western literature, which facilitates a

cultural expression within what was believed to be a more exclusive and rigid domain. With this

concept of metafiction taking dominance in most literary works, t is a concept that most of the

authors and readers prefer because of its impact in developing literature. Metafiction is one of the

concepts that make most of the authors come up with interesting work for the readers

(Kostelanetz, 2001).
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