Varieties of Metafiction

Abstract

Metafiction is commonly defined as fiction that reflects upon its own fictionality. Although literary theorists broadly agree on this characterisation, significant disagreements remain concerning the nature of metafictional reflexivity, its relation to mimesis, and its effects on readers. This paper argues that contemporary analytic philosophy of fiction provides conceptual resources that help clarify what metafictional reflexivity consists in. Drawing on the philosophical distinction between fictional and metafictional statements, I propose a new definition of metafiction: metafictions are fictions that invite readers to imagine that certain true metafictional statements are also true within the fictional world itself. Metafictionality thus arises when the external and internal perspectives on a fiction overlap. The paper shows that this philosophical account converges with influential narratological approaches, particularly theories of metalepsis. In both traditions, metafictionality is understood as a departure from ordinary narrative structures through the transgression of boundaries separating fictional worlds, narrators, and reality. By highlighting this convergence, the paper argues for closer exchanges between narratology and the philosophy of fiction. It concludes by identifying potentially productive divergences between the two traditions regarding the classification of metafictions and the explanation of characteristic effects such as narrative instability and reflexive vertigo.