Metafictional Rethinking of Representation in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) and Shame (1983)
[1]
Béchir Chaabane, Preparatory Institute for Engineering Studies of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia.
Metafiction is a literary technique used by postmodernist novelists such as Salman Rushdie. The metafictional strategies deployed in metafiction highlight its status as an artifact. Also, they make it a subversive genre on many levels, and particularly on the level of form. Some of the metafictional aspects which feature in Rushdie’s novels, namely, Midnight's Children (MCH) and Shame (SH), are the non-linear narrative, the self-conscious comments of the author/narrator, the highly-intrusive author, the author’s digressions and the reader’s involvement in the narrative, hence, blurring the conventional clear-cut distinction between author and reader.
Non-linearity, Self-reflexivity, Fictionality, Metafictionality
[1]
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. London: Picador, 1981.
[2]
Rushdie, Salman, Shame. London: Picador, 1983.
[3]
Gass, William H. “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction” 1970.
[4]
Currie, Mark, ed. Metafiction. New York: Longman, 1995. (Quoted in Victoria Orlowski. Metafiction. New York: Longman, 1995).
[5]
Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-conscious Fiction. New York: Methuen, 1984.
[6]
Jefferson, Ann. “Patricia Waugh, Metafiction The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction.” Poetics Today. 7:3 (1986): 574-6.
[7]
Orlowski, Victoria. «Metafiction». The Literary Encyclopedia. Spring 1996. Last edited: July 2012.
[8]
Hutcheon, Linda: “The Pastime of Past Time”: Fiction, History, Historiographic Metafiction.” GENRE XX (Fall-Winter 1987) p. 154.
[9]
Rawlinson, Jules. “A Quick Look at Non-linear Narrative.” 2004.
[10]
Rushdie, Salman. “In Good Faith” (1990). Imaginary Homelands. London: Granta Books, 1991. 393-414.
[11]
Hutcheon, Linda. Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid University Press. 1980.
