metafiction

[ met-uh-fik-shuhn ]

noun

1. fiction that discusses, describes, or analyzes a work of fiction or the conventions of fiction.

Word History and Origins

Origin of metafiction¹

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

An occasional memoirist, essayist, translator, poet and screenwriter, Auster was best known for his metafiction — books that were characterized by their elusive narrators, chance encounters and labyrinthine narratives.

From New York Times

While it’s far from unique — everyone from Miguel Cervantes to James Joyce to Jorge Luis Borges to Kurt Vonnegut have played with metafiction — that doesn’t negate its potential.

From Los Angeles Times

The traumas of “The New Earth” repeatedly prompt intrusions concerning long prose narratives themselves: bold forays into metafiction.

From Los Angeles Times

What emerges is something special — a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don’t own.

From New York Times

“Oreo” is satire and metafiction, a picaresque and a bildungsroman.

From New York Times