Facts about Metafiction

1. 05

   Patricia Waugh's 1984 book Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction remains a key academic text defining and analyzing the genre.

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2. 04

   Novels like Don Quixote are often cited as early examples of metafiction, with Cervantes embedding commentary on his own narrative within the story.

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3. 03

   The term metafiction was popularized as a critical concept by novelist and critic William H. Gass in his 1970 essay collection Fiction and the Figures of Life.

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4. 02

   John Barth's 1967 essay 'The Literature of Exhaustion' is widely regarded as a foundational critical text for understanding metafiction as a literary mode.

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5. 01

   Postmodern metafiction deliberately exposes its own fictional construction, drawing readers' attention to the artifice of storytelling itself.

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