Metafiction
THE ABRIDGED GUIDE TO METAFICTION
Metafiction is the Inception of literary devices. Where the film Inception is about dreams within dreams (which may or may not have all been a dream), metafiction is a literary device that calls attention to the fictional nature of a work, and in calling attention to this fact also acts as a commentary about the very nature of fiction, fictional works, creators, and audiences. Metafiction can range anywhere from the play within a play, most famously seen in Hamlet, to framed narratives, such as One Thousand and One Nights, to novels that parade themselves as confessions or found documents, such as Lolita or The Catcher in the Rye.
META’ING THE METAFICTION
Due to the very nature of metafiction, there are a host of narrative devices that are employed within the story to further explore the very nature of storytelling. In the interest of time and attention spans, the easiest way to lay these out is probably in list form (which can be expanded upon by clicking and following links):
Frame Narrative: The frame narrative is a close sibling of the story within a story. In the framed narrative one plot serves as a structure to tell other smaller stories. The most famous examples include The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, and One Thousand and One Nights.
Historiographic Metafiction: Historiographic metafiction plays with the concepts of both metafiction and historiography, commenting on both the conventions of fiction and history. Works that are historiographic metafiction can often pose as found documents, such as The Handmaid’s Tale.
Intertextuality: Intertextual works are influenced by other works. In Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, the heroine is immersed in gothic novels, particularly Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho, and views her life through the lens of these novels.
Meta-reference: A meta-reference is any moment in a work that directly references the work's own status as a book. It often means the narrator acknowledging the presence of the audience, commenting on the narrative techniques used in the work, or breaking away from the narrative altogether to directly address the reader. Commonly in theater it is called "breaking the fourth wall" because of the invisible fourth wall that is meant to exist between the stage and the audience.
Parallel Novel: The parallel novel is one that either takes place within another work, based off of another work, a second work that happens within another work, or uses the structure and characters of another novel. Parallel novels can be created by the original writer or another writer. Think Wicked compared to The Wizard of Oz. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood is an example of a novel within a novel.
Story Within a Story: The reader is reading a story, but then they find there’s another story right inside the story they’re reading. In the play Hamlet this would be The Murder of Gonzago. In Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien juxtaposes the stories of Cacciato and of Paul Berlin (the teller of Cacciato's story).
Self-reflexive fiction: Self-reflexive works are those that draw heavily upon the life of the writer. Self-reflexive fiction is a favorite technique for Kurt Vonnegut, seen in many of his novels. Often self-reflexive works, due to their very nature, also make commentary about the act of writing.
Unreliable Narrator: a narrator, usually in first person, whose account is the one the audience hears but cannot always be trusted for various reasons.
ALL THE WORKS THAT ARE FIT TO PRINT
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
If I Only Had Time by Evald Flisar
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire