ABSTRACT
Metafiction is a type of fiction which self-reflexively explores the nature and construction of fiction. Chapter 1, ‘Introduction’, provides an overview of metafiction and of the three metafictional techniques studied in this book: metanarration, metalepsis, and disnarration. It reviews the main contributions from prior literary theoretical and narratological work on metafictionality, in particular postmodern metafiction, which provide a platform for the book’s investigations. In addition, this chapter draws together work on metafiction and work on unnatural narratology, illustrating the relationships between the two fields, and the relevance of the latter to studies of metafiction as a genre. This chapter also briefly introduces discourse deixis and outlines its significance to expressions of metafictionality. Lastly, the chapter proposes the existence of a window of ‘high metafiction’ and outlines the six works examined in this volume as examples of high metafiction: John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse (1988 [1968]), Brigid Brophy’s In Transit: A Heroi-Cyclic Novel (2002 [1969]), Robert Coover’s Pricksongs and Descants (2011 [1969]), John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1996 [1969]), B. S. Johnson’s Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry (2001 [1973]), and Steve Katz’s The Exagggerations of Peter Prince (2017 [1968]).
