In 1967, John Barth wrote an essay which characterized modern literature in a state of exhaustion ,a “used-up” form. The ultimate question then was: What do we do with literature? Barth’s answer suggested that we present narrators that are aware of themselves, as well as the exhaustion of their medium. Also, that we reorient and give new meaning to stories that have already been told, such as the greek myths the second half of the novel focuses on. Meta-fiction is defined as fiction that includes commentary on it’s own construction and narrative process, as well as it’s relation to the reader. Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse addresses the complications of post-modernity and the text. He rejects the idea of a knowable, Cartesian self that can authoritatively construct a unified, coherent narrative because the protagonist is no longer capable of defining him/herself. Meta-fiction addresses this lack of center not only within the self, but within language as well, and grapples with the effects it has on the future of the reader, the role of medium and author, and the intersections between them. Barth redefines this relationship as one of inherent, but not defined, meaning by entering into self-reflexivity and consciousness as the novel progresses. Barth furthers the deconstructive project by asserting LF’s fictionality to engage the reader in play, rather than a passive consumption of authorial intent. (Worthington)
As Lost in the Funhouse is constitutive of many stories that are about the inability of traditional narrative meeting contemporary needs, “the old analogy between Author and God…can no longer be employed” (LF 125). The novel begs the question of what literature can do if the medium is “moribund..if not already dead.” (LF...
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...between the present and the past. Defining symbols, customs, and allegations of the past, both real and perceived, provoke a human battle between rival notions of an ideal present. Literary deconstruction approaches a text in much the same manner, confronting and dismantling fixed signs, traditions, and assertions. Yet like war, a deconstructive reading does not provide a final answer or the ultimate truth.
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...’ (21). These rhetoric questions force readers to stand on her side and to ponder in her direction. She compares the contents of the twentieth-century chapters in current books to ‘a modern-art museum’ (22), which ironically and humorously criticizes the fancy design of the current books. She also directly quotes the original texts to show the changes of current books such as a paragraph from Sellers’ book ‘As It Happened’.
I frankly confess that I have, as a general thing, but little enjoyment of it, and that it has never seemed to me to be, as it were, a first-rate literary form. . . . But it is apt to spoil two good things – a story and a moral, a meaning and a form; and the taste for it is responsible for a large part of the forcible-feeding writing that has been inflicted upon the world. The only cases in whi...
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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...
Postmodern literary criticism asserts that art, author, and audience can only be approached through a series of mediating contexts. "Novels, poems, and plays are neither timeless nor transcendent" (Jehlen 264). Even questions of canon must be considered within a such contexts. "Literature is not only a question of what we read but of who reads and who writes, and in what social circumstances...The canon itself is an historical event; it belongs to the history of the school" (Guillory 238,44).
Literature is an essential part of society in the present day and enables the communication between multiple parties in a written form. Texts can provide a vast knowledge on subjects dependent on content whereas novels are often seen as being purely for leisure and enjoyment. However it can often be seen that prose