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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at the concept of metafiction with specific reference to Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, and considers the ways in which the novel critiques modern American society. Bibliography lists 2 sources
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLmetafic.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
"Breakfast of Champions" as a work of metafiction, it is perhaps useful to look briefly at how metafiction might be defined, and how it fits into the canon of Western
literature. In many ways, metafiction is the literary equivalent of presentational theatre - the latter constantly reminds the audience that they are watching a play, and metafiction reminds the reader
that he is reading a novel. Suspension of disbelief is not required, since the author is not attempting to convince his audience that one should mentally disregard structure in favour
of content. Metafiction uses various devices to keep the awareness of
its fictional status constantly before the reader: the narrative may be about someone writing or reading a story, it may specifically mention particular conventions of narrative fiction such as the
development of plotlines, it may have the author as a character in the work, or characters who explicitly mention their awareness of being in a story. The narrative may not
follow a linear pattern, or it may have asides in the form of footnotes which explain aspects of the story from the authorial perspective whilst continuing the narrative. The reader
is constantly being reminded of the process of construction, whilst being involved in the construct itself in the form of the text. In many cases, the reader is constantly aware
of the balance between the author qua author, and the author as an active participant in the story - we see this exemplified in Breakfast of Champions.
As McNichols (2004) points out, not only is Vonnegut both narrator and main character,
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