Metafiction: Textual Labyrinths

elective courses

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the concept of metafiction, the peculiar structure of multi-level texts, the various effects created by the genre (mise en abyme, trompe-l'œil, etc.), and the web of meanings associated with self-reflexive and self-informing works. In this course, students will track metafiction through its history beginning with Shakespeare, review the general context of the genre and its influence on the formation of narrative in contemporary literature and the visual arts.

Metafiction is an intensely self-conscious narrative, creating structures so complex that they begin to resemble labyrinths. This presents a dual danger to the readers. First, they may simply lose themselves in-between the multiple layers of the text, failing to grasp any meaning at all and finally refusing the "willing suspension of disbelief" to such a treacherous text. Or, they might be lost in the constant struggle to chart the unwinding of the labyrinth, interpreting and over-interpreting every sign and symbol, becoming convinced that everything is meaningful and ultimately realizing that they themselves have become a part of the work.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the concept of metafiction, the peculiar structure of multi-level texts, the various effects created by the genre (mise en abyme, trompe-l'œil, etc.), and the web of meanings associated with self-reflexive and self-informing works. In this course, students will track metafiction through its history, beginning with Shakespeare, review the general context of the genre and its influence on the formation of narrative in contemporary literature and the visual arts.

The texts discussed in the course will tackle various aspects of metafiction, charting it not only through history (the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Modernism, Postmodernism, 21st-century literature), but through various genres and indicating the presence of its shifting frames in familiar and seemingly stable works.

Topics and texts:

1. Introduction: Defining Metafiction. Reading fragments from: J. L. Borges, “The Circular Ruins”, J. Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, I. McEwan, Atonement

2. The author and his characters: Elizabethan drama in 20th century film adaptations. W. Shakespeare, The Tempest, Derek Jarman (dir.) The Tempest, Peter Greenaway (dir.), Prospero’s Books (Class 2+3)

3. Caliban’s Books: The Tempest through the looking glass in postmodernist fiction. J. Banville, Ghosts.

4. Frames, reflections and parodies in 18th century prose: L. Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (selected fragments) and Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (fragments).

5. “A tale that was never ended”: metafiction in the realist novel. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre.

6. Interpretation and over-interpretation: Henry James, “The Figure in the Carpet”.

7. Intertextuality and metafiction in modernist prose: Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts (Class 8+9).

8. Hearing voices: textual paranoia in early postmodernist fiction. Muriel Spark, Comforters / Loitering with Intent.

9. “What is the first thing you remember?” Amnesiac characters in absurdist drama. Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (the film and the play).

10. Metafiction as the prison of the mind. Ian McEwan, “Reflections of a Kept Ape”.

11. Voices, echoes, masks and frames: metafictional games in 21st century fiction. Ian McEwan, Nutshell (Class 13+14).

12. Metafiction in Film: Spike Jonze (dir.), Charlie Kaufman (screenplay), Adaptation; Michel Gondry (dir.), Charlie Kaufman (screenplay), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Education at language level B2+.

Robert Alter, Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre (Berkeley: U of California Press, 1975)

Marc Currie (ed.), Metafiction (Hoboken: Routledge, 2014)

Jean-Pierre Dupuy, "Self-reference in Literature," Poetics 18 (1989), pp. 491–515

Monika Fludernik, “Metanarrative and Metafictional Commentary: From Metadiscursivity to Metanarration and Metafiction,” Poetica 35 (2003), pp. 1–39

Linda Hutcheon, Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox (New York and London: Methuen,1985)

Linda Hutcheon, “Incredulity toward Metanarrative: Negotiating Postmodernism and Feminisms.” K. Mezei (ed.). Ambiguous Discourse: Feminist Narratology and British Women Writers (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1996), pp. 262–267

Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning, “Metanarration and Metafiction.” In: Handbook of Narratology, eds. Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid and Jörg Schönert (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 2009), pp. 204-211

Joan D. Peters, Feminist Metafiction and the Evolution of the British Novel (Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2002)

Robert Scholes, Fabulation and Metafiction (Urbana: Universtiy of Illinois Press, 1980)

Patricia Waugh, Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction (London and New York: Routledge, 1988)

By the end of the course students:

- are familiarised with a wide range of significant literary texts, both contemporary and belonging to the established canon,

- are introduced to key concepts of postmodernist fiction,

- are introduced to the metanarrative in works of visual art (cinema),

- enhance their ability to conduct critical analysis of a literary work,

- develop their skills in preparing and presenting an individual research project,

- enhance their preparation for participation in the cultural life of society; practice various forms of social interaction in disseminating knowledge on various aspects of culture.

Attendance and active participation in discussions: 30%

Final project: 70%

The final project may be one of the following:

- an essay of 2000 words on any work covered in the course, with the use of academic critical sources (at least 3),

- a detailed overview of criticism: a discussion of at least 5 academic sources,

- a creative exercise: writing a metafictional short story.

The retake consists in submitting the project which the student failed to submit and/or in rewriting it if it was evaluated negatively.

Three formally justified absences are allowed.