Metafiction

is a term given to fiction which calls attention to itself as fiction. Does this in numerous ways:

Metafiction, as a term, can be broken into its two parts: fiction -- the art of literary, imaginary writing; and meta- which signifies the abstract, spiritual, or idealistic basis for a concept. Hence, metafiction explores the conceptual foundations of fiction -- its basis in imagination, and its basis in language.

Typically, metafiction writers begin with a deep skepticism about the power of language to create ultimate meaning. Much of this skepticism is a product of the overall skeptical leanings of the 20th century as a whole, particularly the spiritual/religious skepticism of the age. The notion of language as representing something "out there" -- an idea, a spiritual essence -- is as old a humanity. Plato taught that the word found its ideal counterpart in a world of Ideal Forms that existed in the mind of God, or adjacent to the world of matter. In Christianity, John writes, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..." Christian writers have used this passage to explain their own metaphysical ideas of the relationship between spirituality and matter -- i.e. the Idea or concept of something resides first with God, and then in the world.

In the contemporary world, however, the one-to-one relationship between the word and the idea has been questioned. Language in general has come under severe scrutiny in recent years, and such critical schools as Deconstructionism, Structuralism and others are based on theories concerning the relationship of language to reality (sometimes opting to believe there is no relationship). Hence the metafiction writer is a radical -- he or she believes that language is reality, and yet that language and reality -- the world outside the self -- have no ultimate connection at all. Some writers conclude that because there is no connection between reality and language, the writer is simply a creator of a totally imaginative world, which has its own rules. Such writers often turn toward an absurd treatment of the world in their writings, as if to illustrate that a) language's final value can best be captured in play; and b) the writer is a clown-figure, a jester who uses words to illustrate how absurd and arbitrary all ideas and human mental constructions are.

"New Journalism"

"Surrealism"