metafictionn.
/ˈmɛtəˌfɪkʃn/, U.S. /ˈmɛdəˌfɪkʃ(ə)n/ Literary Theory.
Fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions (esp. naturalism) and narrative techniques; a fictional work in this genre or style. See also postmodernism n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > fiction > [noun] > departing from narrative conventions
metafiction1960
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > fiction > [noun] > a work of fiction > departing from narrative conventions
metafiction1960
1960 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 June 381/3 All or Nothing..can be regarded as a metaphysical discourse, a mockery of rationalism, meta-fiction or space poetry.
1970 W. H. Gass Fiction & Figures of Life i. i. 25 Many of the so-called antinovels are really metafictions.
1980 B. W. Aldiss Life in West viii. 154 They are worthy of a serious study as metafiction or socio-economic artform.
1994 Observer 18 Sept. (Review section) 19/1 Metafiction, fiction which self-consciously signals its status as fiction, is usually a pain... Austin Wright's Tony and Susan is a rarity—a metafiction that ingeniously comments on the experience of reading it, but which, as fiction, retains a feverish psychic grip.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1960