Chapter 1: The Workings of Meta-metafiction
1.1 Frame and Frame-break
The overt self-referentiality in the beginning of Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, which I have parodied at the start of this paper, immediately indicates that it is a metafictional text. Even a reader who is not familiar with the literary devices of irony and parody would be able to appreciate the self-reflexive humour of a book that “forces us to consider [it] as an artifact” (McCaffery 183) rather than a transparent medium through which we read the narrative. However, such overt self-referentiality risks sounding like a smug, technical literary exercise that some may call “frivolous” (Dipple 9). Rather, the majority of metafictional and meta-metafictional texts function as commentaries on their status as particular fictional texts through the use of parody and irony, presenting a spectrum ranging from more overt to subtler forms of self-referentiality.
Many critics have already discussed how metafictional texts use parody and irony to expose literary conventions and “disrupt the codes” (Narcissistic Narrative 39) that structure a reader’s experience and interpretation of fiction. While there are differing opinions on exactly how this “deconstruction of illusion” (Waugh 14) is achieved, most commentators recognise the use of parody and irony in the interplay of framing devices that “set up a hierarchy of contexts and meanings” (Waugh 36) within the text. As James Pearse points out, conventional frames of reference such as “the narrator’s voice (first person, third person etc.) and the narrator’s vision (limited, omniscient, reliable, etc.)” (Pearse 73) are destabilised in metafiction, challenging the notion of a final authoritative voice that...
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...haracter occupies the second largest frame and has the most authoritative voice within the narrative. At first it seems like this character is Kinbote as he guides Pale Fire’s narrative despite seeming completely unsuited to write a work of criticism. His commentary on the poem “Pale Fire” takes the shape of his own fancies, often lapsing into a personal voice that is fully unsuitable for criticism due to its lack of relevance to the poem. In the Preface, his exclamation of annoyance that “[t]here is a very loud amusement park right in front of [his] present lodgings” (Nabokov 11) is a parody of the convention of the neutral, objective critic who avoids irrelevant personal trivia in his analysis. In this way, his commentary breaks the frame of his critical project as an implicit commentary on the nature of the text, and shifts into the metafictional mode of writing.
Among its detractors, literary theory has a reputation for sinful ignorance of both literature and the outside world; literary critics either overemphasize the word at the expense of context (as in formalistic criticisms) or overemphasize context at the expense of the word (as in political and historical criticisms). However, deconstruction holds a particularly tenuous position among literary theories as a school that apparently commits both sins; while formalistically focusing on the words on the page, deconstruction subjects those words to unnatural abuse. Thus, deconstruction seems locked in the ivory tower, in the company of resentful New-Critical neighbors.
Author: Walter Benn Michaels is the chair of the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago teaching literary theory, and American literature. Michaels has also has multiple essays and books published such as Against Theory, The shape of the Signifier, and Diversity's False Solace
Since the emergence of literature, thousands upon thousands of characters have graced our imaginations. From trouble maker Bart Simpson of the celebrated cartoon television series The Simpsons to Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen’s renowned novel Pride and Prejudice, the world has witnessed a plethora of characters in literature. Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, and Billy Collins, distinguished American poet, as well as countless other authors, share the utilization of characters in their literary works. The manner in which these authors use the literary element of characters varies immensely.
The article, “Girl Moved To Tears By 'Of Mice And Men' Cliffs Notes,” published by The Onion, argues through its satire that people shouldn’t cry over the dry, analyzed parts like the summaries and that they should read the book instead. The type of satire used to develop the thesis is horatian and a satirical device used to develop the thesis is irony. The article is filled with verbal irony with direct quotes from Weaver like “‘I never wanted the synopsis to end’” and from her professor that said, “this was not the first time one of his students has expressed interest in the novel’s plot summary.” The target of the satire are students who read summaries rather than the entire book and the purpose is to encourage students to read the book rather than Cliff Notes to get all the information. The opposing argument is that sources like Sparknotes and Cliff Notes can actually help a student if they don’t understand something they just read or if they are under a time crunch.
...simov. Ed. Joseph D. Olander and Martin Harry Greenberg. N.p.: Taplinger, 1977. 32-58. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jean C. Stine. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale, 1983. 41-45. Print.
Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Goodnight Desdemona (Good morningJuliet) uses intertextuality to unveil the complete Shakespearean characters of Juliet and Desdemona to reveal the feminist narrative lurking between lines of Shakespeare’s plays. Only through the intertextual re-examination of the Shakespearean text itself via the interjection of genre and the reassigning of dialogue, within the metatheatre, is the true feminist representation of the female Shakespearian characters unveiled from behind the patriarchal preconceptions. From this understanding we may read Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) to be true feminist reworking of Shakespeare. Therefore the metatheatre’s intertextuality reinforces and supports the traits of the feminine. MacDonald’s main Character, Constance Ledbelly is searching for the missing link in Shakespeare’s Othello and Romeo and Juliet, the missing link from the original source works of his plays. Just as Constance explores from studying the Gustav manuscript that something is missing from Shakespere’s plays, we the reader can complete the information with Constance’s exploration to uncover the feminist narrative hidden within Shakespeare’s plays. MacDonald uses intertextuality and meta-theatre to dive into the mystery that is the source works of Shakespeare. The opening dumb show introduces us to the three different worlds that we are about to explore. This introduction to the meta-theatre, showing the ‘new’ narrative and play, that is the story of Constance, and the two familiar plays of Othello and Romeo and Juliet, invites the reader/viewer into the exploration of the inner workings of the texts. Constance is thrust into each play, creating the play within the play which is then manipulated by Con...
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Primarily used in satire is the literary device, irony, which is often displayed in both Swift’s essay and Voltaire’s novella; it is used to convey the duplicity of certain ...
Some literary works exhibit structural irony, in that they show sustained irony. In such works the author, instead of using an occasional verbal irony, introduces a structural feature which serves to sustain a duplicity of meaning. One common device of this sort is the invention of a naïve hero, or else a naïve narrator or spokesman, whose invincible simplicity or obtuseness leads him to persist in putting an interpretation on affairs which the knowing reader—who penetrates to, and shares, the implicit point of view of the authorial presence behind the naïve persona—just as persistently is called on to alter and correct. (Abrams, 90)
Baker, Joseph E. “Irony in Fiction: ‘All the King’s Men.’” College English. Vol. 9. JSTOR.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
Henry Fielding felt great concern towards the embellished stylization of epic novels, and in order to relay his critiques of this popularized genre, he constructed an epic parody to reveal the turgid grandiose nature of such works through a sarcastic spoof. Commenced with his mordant invocation of a muse, Henry Fielding’s epic parody, Tom Jones emphasizes droll concern with the classical epic style by christening Homeric epithets and personifications with a satirical twist.
Some of most lasting works of satire exemplify such a function, most specifically through the end-states of the protagonists. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Voltaire’s Candide, and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels all exemplify end-states of protagonists that emphasize conclusions to the moral and philosophical problems posed by the authors. Yet, each also exhibits a degree of ambiguity, which allows the audience to reflect on the criticism in conjunction with literary examination. All three of the aforementioned literary works are different in content and the degree of satire employed. However, by comparing the differences and similarities between protagonist end-states in each work, it becomes possible to better understand satire as a literary genre. Namely, the characteri...
Narratology divides a ‘narrative into story and narration’. (Cohan et al., 1988, p. 53) The three main figures that contribute a considerable amount of research to this theory are Gerard Genette, Aristotle and Vladimir Propp. This essay will focus on how Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights can be fully appreciated and understood when the theory is applied to the text. Firstly, I will focus on the components of narration Genette identifies that enhance a reader’s experience of the text. Secondly, I will discuss the three key elements in a plot that Aristotle recognises and apply these to Heathcliff’s character. In the final section I will apply part of the seven ‘spheres of action’, Propp categorises, to Heathcliff’s character. However, not all of Narratology can be applied to a text. This raises the question; does this hinder a readers understanding and/or appreciation of the text? This paper will also address this issue.