Metafiction: Textual Labyrinths 3301-LB1025
Metafiction is an intensely self-conscious narrative, creating structures so complex that they begin to resemble labyrinths. This presents a dual danger to the readers. First, they may simply lose themselves in-between the multiple layers of the text, failing to grasp any meaning at all and finally refusing the "willing suspension of disbelief" to such a treacherous text. Or, they might be lost in the constant struggle to chart the unwinding of the labyrinth, interpreting and over-interpreting every sign and symbol, becoming convinced that everything is meaningful and ultimately realizing that they themselves have become a part of the work.
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the concept of metafiction, the peculiar structure of multi-level texts, the various effects created by the genre (mise en abyme, trompe-l'œil, etc.), and the web of meanings associated with self-reflexive and self-informing works. In this course, students will track metafiction through its history, beginning with Shakespeare, review the general context of the genre and its influence on the formation of narrative in contemporary literature and the visual arts.
The texts discussed in the course will tackle various aspects of metafiction, charting it not only through history (the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Modernism, Postmodernism, 21st-century literature), but through various genres and indicating the presence of its shifting frames in familiar and seemingly stable works.
Topics and texts:
1. Introduction: Defining Metafiction. Reading fragments from: J. L. Borges, “The Circular Ruins”, J. Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, I. McEwan, Atonement
2. The author and his characters: Elizabethan drama in 20th century film adaptations. W. Shakespeare, The Tempest, Derek Jarman (dir.) The Tempest, Peter Greenaway (dir.), Prospero’s Books
3. Caliban’s Books: The Tempest through the looking glass in postmodernist fiction. J. Banville, Ghosts.
4. Frames, reflections and parodies in 18th century prose: L. Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (selected fragments) and Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (fragments).
5. Hearing voices: textual paranoia in early postmodernist fiction. Muriel Spark, Comforters / Loitering with Intent.
6. “What is the first thing you remember?” Amnesiac characters in absurdist drama. Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (the film and the play).
7. Metafiction as the prison of the mind. Nabokov, Pnin. Ian McEwan, “Reflections of a Kept Ape”.
8. Voices, echoes, masks and frames: metafictional games in 21st century fiction. Ian McEwan, Nutshell (Class 13+14).
12. Metafiction in Film: Spike Jonze (dir.), Charlie Kaufman (screenplay), Adaptation; Michel Gondry (dir.), Charlie Kaufman (screenplay), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Education at language level B2+.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Wiedza
Student zna i rozumie:
K_W02 understand key terminology, well established methods and theories of linguistics, literary studies and culture studies within English studies, particularly related to metafiction and metacinema.
K_W03 describe methodology and recent developments in English literary studies and culture studies, particularly related to metafiction and metacinema.
K_W05 list the characteristics of English grammar, syntax, phonology, phonetics, morphology and pragmatics on an advanced level, while reading and analyzing literary texts with elements of metafiction.
K_W07 explain principles of designing literary and culture studies, with special focus on selecting appropriate methods and tools in formulating research questions, including methods of interpretatoin and various approaches to comparative studies, particularly in the studies of metafiction and metacinema
Skills and abilities:
Student is able to:
K_U01 employ the terminology and methodological tools from linguistics, literary studies and culture studies, in particular terminology and conceptual aparatus related to metafiction
K_U02 employ the methodology of literary and culture studies within English studies, respecting the ethical norms and copyright law while preparing course assignments and final project
K_U04 implement knowledge to describe a problem and identify means to solve it, thereby completing a project in literary studies and in culture and religion studies, including the final project chosen by the student (essay or creative work)
K_U11 design one’s own development by independent study, making decisions regarding the final project and accepting responsibility for such desicions.
Social competences
Student is ready to:
K_K02 undertake life-long learning and personal development, applying skills and competences to select subjects and projects optimally suiting one’s personal interests, particularly in reading and analysing metafictions
K_K03 value responsibility for one’s own work and respect the work of others, adhering to the professional and ethical norms in various projects and other activities undertaken at work, voluntary services, etc., preparing projects, conducting research and participating in discussions on metafiction and metacinema in different cultural perspectives.
Assessment criteria
Attendance and active participation in discussions: 10%
Final project: 90%
The final project may be one of the following:
- an essay of 2000 words on any work covered in the course, with the use of academic critical sources (at least 3),
- a creative exercise: writing a metafictional short story or preparing another project after consulting it with the instructor.
The retake consists in submitting the project which the student failed to submit and/or in rewriting it if it was evaluated negatively.
Three formally justified absences are allowed.
Bibliography
Robert Alter, Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre (Berkeley: U of California Press, 1975)
Marc Currie (ed.), Metafiction (Hoboken: Routledge, 2014)
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, "Self-reference in Literature," Poetics 18 (1989), pp. 491–515
Monika Fludernik, “Metanarrative and Metafictional Commentary: From Metadiscursivity to Metanarration and Metafiction,” Poetica 35 (2003), pp. 1–39
Linda Hutcheon, Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox (New York and London: Methuen,1985)
Linda Hutcheon, “Incredulity toward Metanarrative: Negotiating Postmodernism and Feminisms.” K. Mezei (ed.). Ambiguous Discourse: Feminist Narratology and British Women Writers (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1996), pp. 262–267
Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning, “Metanarration and Metafiction.” In: Handbook of Narratology, eds. Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid and Jörg Schönert (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 2009), pp. 204-211
Joan D. Peters, Feminist Metafiction and the Evolution of the British Novel (Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2002)
Robert Scholes, Fabulation and Metafiction (Urbana: Universtiy of Illinois Press, 1980)
Patricia Waugh, Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction (London and New York: Routledge, 1988)
Additional information
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