Postmoderism - Metafiction

[Yankee]

All the metafiction articles I have read online just give me a general overview of what this literally method means. Where can I get information about this type of literally method and/or postmoderism in greater detail.

Which list of book woud you recommend?

I am endevouring to read and fully comprehend the writings of Eco, Borges, and Murakami but first I need a good foundation of the literally method they employ. I want a solid understanding of this method as I proceed with the works of the above authors. Can anyone help me?

Thank you.

[Charles Darnay]

There are a couple of books dedicated to the subject of metafiction. One that I read in university is called Metafiction but I cannot remember the author's name, and Google was not being helpful. It wasn't that good anyway.

The three authors you listed above are radically different, and each draw their influences from different places. There is the thin thread of postmodernism which connects them, yes, but it will be hard to find one solid theory that encompasses them all.

My advice would be to get books from these respective authors with good introductions. They tend to offer wonderful insights into not only the author's life, but ideological influence, literary influence, and how the particular work was shaped.

On the other hand, there is something to be said (particularly for authors such as these) to plunging right in, accepting that you will be confused for a bit at the beginning, but adjusting yourself to their style, thereby determining for your self what their literary methods are, instead of relying on scholars.

For Borges, I always recommend Labyrinths - amazing collection which shows off his range.

Eco - I would start with Name of the Rose - probably his "easiest" novel, but also a good introduction to his literary method.

Murakami - Norwegian Wood is the most realistic of his that I have read (I have not read everything). A good introduction to his surrealist/postmodern works would be Kafka on the Shore or Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

Have fun - these are three fantastic authors!

[ralfyman]

Try the lists found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_literature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_postmodern_authors

[Yankee]

http://img2.findthebest.com/sites/default/files/655/media/images/The_Adventures_of_Don_Quixote_by_Miguel_de_Cervant es_Saavedra.jpg

[Charles Darnay]

Cervantes actually drew from an established tradition - but he certainly took the idea of metafiction (particularly in Book 2 of Don Quixote to new heights). Many authors who deal in the realm of reality vs. story owe much to the "noble crackbrained knight" to use Rostand's words.

[Jack of Hearts]

This reader doesn't understand why Don Quixote is considered metafiction? Granted, he never finished it, but it read like a straight forward narrative in satire.

Also, if The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is metafiction, missed that one too...

When this reader thinks of 'metafiction', he thinks of Infinite Jest and House of Leaves and Foucault's Pendulum (all books that suck). Is something missing in his concept here?




J

[JCamilo]

All Quixote is metafictional, as it concerns with the question of the illusions vs. reality from the narrative point of view, but the second part is abusive, as it is basically a "mirror" of the first part. First, it is written to deny the truth of the books written by other authors about quixote, second is about quixote traveling in a world where all peope read the first book. There is momments when he meets an author that is like Cervantes (just like Shakespeare metafiction in Hamlet, when there is the play hired by Hamlet), and finally there is even a story that nobles invite Quixote to the castle and try to make him act crazy by pretending his imagination was there, a trick, and quixote refuses to be crazy. Metafiction is quite old, yoou can find elements of it on Homer, in the Qu'ran, 1001 nights, The Comedy, etc.

Just a thing, Borges is not post-modern and probally, reading Eco's essays can give a clue about metafiction.

[OrphanPip]

What makes postmodern metafiction a bit different is the way the metafictional aspects manifests. Where Quixote quite openly satirizes the Chivalric Romances, something like a Murakami novel draws attention to its metafictional aspects more obliquely. Kafka on The Shore, I suppose, can be read as a metafiction because of the overbearing allusiveness in the text: characters like Jack Daniels and Colonel Sanders, talking cats are treated completely seriously in a realist mode, mixing Western and Japanese cultural production, and music and literature is imbued with prophetic/mythological qualities. Murakami's novel comments on the meaning of texts, but he does so as mediated through a mesh of postmodern concerns and techniques. The only real truly substantial difference between him and Cervantes is really philosophical, since Cervantes' approach is Humanistic rather than Pomo.

[Charles Darnay]

About the Quixote....what JCamilo said. Cervantes, in the second book, translates his own book into a book within a book - metafiction.

Why is Borges not post-modern? At least chronologically, he fits, as do his themes and tropes (the infinite labyrinths, the influence of writing &c.)

If you really want to pin down the quintessential metafiction text, I would say it's Arabian Nights Entertainment. The part where Scheherazade starts telling the story of her telling the stories is wonderful - as is everything about the text.

[ralfyman]

I think OP is looking for post-modern lit in terms of historical period, i.e., written after WW2, with metafictive aspects.

[Anton Hermes]

You should take a look at Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino. It's a metafictional workout, with a terrible author dealing with stubborn characters, loved ones who are losing their patience, and his own autobiography. Like his fictional subject, Sorrentino doesn't always know when enough's enough. But it's a wild postmodern romp anyhow.