Narratologia

Contributions to Narrative Theory/

Beitrage zur Erzahltheorie
Edited by/Herausgegeben von
Fotis J annidis, John Pier, Wolf Schmid
Editorial Board/Wissenschaftlicher Beirat
Catherine Emmott, Monika Fludernik
Jose Agel Garcia Landa, Peter H iihn, Manfed Jahn
Andreas Kablitz, Uri Margolin, Matias Martinez
Jan Christoph Meister, Ansgar Niinning
Marie-Laure Ryan, Jean-Marie Schaeffer
Michael Scheffel, Sabine Schlickers, J org Schonert
4
Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
Te Dynamics
of Narrative For
Studies in Anglo-Aerican Narratology
Edited by
John Pier
Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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d. Anglo merican
The dynamic of narrative f . U ies -
narratology edited by John
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p. cm - ( arratologia 4)
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Includes bibliographical reference and mdex

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Prefce
The contributions to the present volume all reflect, in diferent ways,
some of the directions taken by narratology since the early 1990s
under the banner of what has come to be called in many quarters
"post-classical" narratology. As the readers of a volume such as this
are likely to be aware, developments in narrative theory in recent years
do not necessarily mark a clean and revolutionary break with the
earlier "classical" narratology, fr the crisis to which the original
paradigms, models and methodologies led-quite diverse in them
selves-has proved to be less an impasse than to have given rise to a
new impulse in the principled study of narrative so innovatively exem
plifed by the initial narratological studies.
The majority of these contributions originated during the
Narratology Panel at the sixth congress of the European Society fr the
Study of English held in Strasburg in September 20021 No precise
topic or methodological approach was set, but participants (and
subsequently the other contributors) were invited to engage in stock
taking on themes of their own choice, charing out vistas of potential
interest for the fture of narratologically-inspired research. Given the
diversity of topics and, in some cases, the divergent theoretical premises
adopted by the contributors, no claim can be made to a unifed body
of research or to a fndamental postulate shared by all.
This is as it should be.
Readers of the fllowing pages will not fil to notice the rigor and
coherence running through each of the essays in their own right, and
on this basis alone any attempt to seek out a centralizing doctrine
would be largely fitless, and unfortunate. Various groupings and
cross-groupings will nonetheless crop up, not so much as a matter of
common presuppositions or concurent conclusions as that of a
stimulating contrast of views on similar or related narratological topics.
Most striking in this regard is Rene Rivara's critique of fcalization as
inherited fom Gerard Genette and his successors and the post
structuralist refrmulation of fcalization proposed by Luc Herman
and Bart Vervaeck. The frmer, based on French enunciative linguistics
and the insistence of reuniting "Who sees?" with "Who speaks?", is a
Papers Oy Jose
A
ngel Garcia Landa, Peter Hihn, Dieter Mei ndl, -.,...--.-,
s.--Pier and Michael Toolan.
6 Prefce
systematic exploration of the viewpoints available to narrative fiction,
while the latter investigates how fcalization is woven into other
fatures of narative such as plot, theme and metaphorical and
metonymic devices: one employs sophisticated analytical tools to refne
a concept as it was synthesized in "classical" narratology; the other is
a "post-classical" expansion of that concept aimed at exploring new
dimensions of established narratological categories.
In diferent ways and to various degrees, this patter corresponds to
the tendencies illustrated by many of the other contributions. This is
not to say, however, that each article is to be paired with another or that
the order in which the aricles appear precludes groupings that may
highlight other problems of interest fr narrative study. Again, each
contribution stads on its own, ad while Michael Toolan's "Graded
Expectations" and Joh Pier's "Narrative Confgurations," fr in
stance, both bear in pa on the sequential ordering of narrative texts,
this is neither fr the same reasons nor with the same consequences,
even though each approach may possibly shed light on the other. Jose
Angel Garcia Landa draws attention to the rarely studied question of
how narrative tends to be "overheard," with the intrusion of a
parasitical "unaddressed" reader into the universe of discourse
upsetting the neat ft so readily assumed to exist between narratological
schemes and communicative processes. The twists and turs thus
caused in the fnctioning of narrative communication may open the
way to frher analysis on the basis of Dieter Meindl's 'pronominal"
theory of reliable and unreliable narration. In yet another deparure
fom earlier tenets, there is a growing awareness that narative fatures
are not restricted to discourses (verbal or other) dominated by the
telling of stories. Thus, Peter Hihn, in fcusing on the implementation
of narrative sequentiality and mediacy through an act of articulation as
this occurs in lyric poetry-a frm of discourse not generally
characterized by the present recounting of past happenings or by the
prominence of fcalization associated with prose fction, fr ex
ample-puts frth a compelling argument fr the insights to be gained
fom "transgeneric" applications of narratology. Wit regard to story,
moreover, one of the practices of the strcturalist narratologies, now
contested, is the story-oriented analysis of plot. Hilary P. Dannenberg
approaches this problem through possible worlds theory, showing how,
in the "temporal orchestration" of alterative possible worL' t also
of counterfctual worlds ad transworld identity, plot emerges as
Prefce 7
ontological layering, rather than as mere anachronic or proleptic
inversions of a unilinear and chronological "actual world" story by
discourse. And fnally, while all the articles in this collection tend to
reposition issues frmulated by earlier narrative theories in light of the
broad spectrum of recent developments, Ansgar Niinning's con
tribution on metanarrative, studied only sporadically by both the
"classical" and the "post-classical" narratologies, is exemplary in
clarifing a heretofre confsed concept, providing it with a theoretical
fundation, a detailed typology with numerous examples and sug
gestions fr frther study.
These questions and their possible convergences are but a sampling
of the paths of inquiry that readers might be tempted to fllow up.
Indeed, the topics debated in the fllowing pages have all been
examined more or less extensively in earlier studies. It is, however, in
redefning and in reorienting concepts and methods in light of past and
recent evolutions that the contributors to this volume have sought to
capture the dynamic processes of narrative and of narratological
research.
On behalf of all contributors, I wish to tha Michail Tavonius and
Karin Pafort fr their superb devotion and expertise in preparing the
layout of this yolume.
John Pier
ANSGAR NNING
On Metanarative:
Contents
Towards a Defnition, a Typology and an Outline of the
Functions ofMetanarative Commentary. .. ..... .. ............ . . .. . .. ... .. . . . .. . . . 1 1
DIETER MEINDL
(Un-)Reliable Narration fom a Pronominal Perspective . .......... .. ... .. 59
RENE RVARA
A Plea fr a Narator-Centered Narratology. ....... . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 83
Luc HERMAN, BART VERVAECK
Focalization between Classical and Postclassical Narratology . . . . . . . . . 1 1 5
PETER HUHN
Transgeneric Narratology: Applications to Lyric Poetry........ . . . . . . ..... 1 39
HILARYP. DANNENBERG
Ontological Plotting:
Narrative as a Multiplicity of Temporal Dimensions.............. .......... 1 59
JOSE ANGEL GARciA LANDA
Overhearing Narrative. . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . ... . . . . . . . . . ........ .. . . .. . . .... . . . . . 1 91
MICHAEL TOOLAN
Graded Expectations:
On the Textual and Structural
Shaping of Readers' Narative Experience ......e .........=...... . . . . ... . . ....... 21 5
JOHN PIER
Narrative Confgurations ......==.. . . . . + . . . . . . ........ .=. ... . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . ....... . . . . . . 239
NAME IDEX........................................................................................ 269
ANSGAR NUNNIG
(GieBen)
On Metanarative:
Towards a Defition, a Tyolog and an Outline of the
Functions of Metanarative Comentary
While the importance of the concept of metafction has long been widely
recognized, the diference between metafction and metanarrative has
generally been overlooked. This paper argues that one needs to distinguish
between metafction and the phenomenon of metanarration. It addresses
some of the terminological and typological issues pertaining to the con
cept of metanarration, providing a defnition and a typology of meta
narative comments as we1l as d outline of the fnctions they can flfl in
fctional naratives. The frst two parts of the paper are devoted to the
intoduction and defnition of the notion of metaarrative and to the dis
cussion of some of the problems surounding it. Section three develops a
set of categories fr the analysis of and typological distinction between
diferent kinds of metanarrative commentary. The fu section provides
a brief historical overview of the fnctions that metanarrative comments
have flflled in British novels fom the end of the seventeenth century to
the present. The fnal section gives a bref summary and suggests that
much more work needs to be done1
I wanted this whole thing to be poetic. It started out poetic. Now it's just me, yaketty
ya.
I'll let you into a secret: I spent half a night-fight on the frst three paas. I think I
might have mentioned this already. I didn't read Nora fr more than about ten
would like |o thank Monika Fludemik (Freiburg), Peter Hihn (Hamburg) Jorg
Schonert (Hamburg) and other members of the Hamburg research group on
'Naratology," well Werer Wolf (Gra) and my wife Vera fr various important
ideas, textual examples, and critical comments (e.g. on the defnition of metanaration
and metafction) on earlier papers covering roughly the same material (cf A. inning
[200Ja], [2001b]). am particularly gratefl to my assistants Gaby Allrath, Dorothee
Birke and Ros Lawson fr their splendid help with the English version of this paper.
12 Ansgar Ninning
minutes. Mailer, not blahdy Barry. I spent four and a half hours composing the star.
(Ada Thorpe, Still [1995])
2
1 . Introduction: Metanarration as a gap in literary terminology
Metanarration, i.e. the narrator's commenting on the process of narration,
has been one of the constitutive elements of the 'rhetoric of fction' (sensu
W.C. Booth) since the beginnings of the novel. Moreover, self-refexive
refrences are an integral component of everyday narration, anecdote,
ballad and urban legend. In many literary narative texts, both frst-person
and authorial narators fequently address a fctitious interlocutor and talk
about their own narrative. Some quotations fom well-known works of
English narrative literature since the Middle Ages can serve as a frst
indication of how widespread the phenomenon of metanarration actually
1s:
Er that I ferher in tis tale pace,
Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
To telle yow al the condicioun
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
And eek in what ar ay that tey were inne;
And at a knyght than wol I frst bigynne.
(Geofey Chaucer, "General Prologue", The Canterbur Tales [ea. 1380-1400])3
Now the reader I suppose to be upon thors at tis and the like imperinent digressions,
but let him alone and he'll come to himself; at which time I think ft to acquaint him,
that when I digress, I am at that time writing to please my self; when I continue the
thread of the stor, I write to please him; supposing him a reaonable ma, I conclude
him satisfed to allow me this libery, ad so I proceed. (William Congreve, Incognita
or, Love and Dut Reconcil'd. A Novel [1692])
4
Now it is our Purose in the ensuing Pages, to pursue a contrary Method. When any
extraordinary scene presents itself (as we trust will ofen be the Case) we shall spae no
Pains nor Paper to open it at large to our Reader; but if whole Years should pass
without producing any thing worhy his Notice, we shall not be afaid of a Chasm in
our Histor; but shall hasten on to Matters of Consequence, and leave such Periods of
Time totally unobserved. (Henr Fielding, The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling
[1749])
5
Thore (1998: 34 ).
Chaucer(1957: 17).
4
Congreve ( 1930: 250).
Fielding (1975: 76).
On Metanaative 13
Wheter I shall D out to be the hero of my own lif, or whether that station will be
held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of
my lif, I record that I was bor (as I have been infred and believe) on a Friday, at
twelve o'clock at night. (Chales Dickens, The Personal History ofDavid Coppeield
[ 1849/50])
6
If you really want to hear about it, the frst thing you'll probably want to know is
where I was bor, and what my lousy childhood was like [ ... ] and all that David
Copperfeld kind of crap, but I don't fel like going into it. (J.D. Salinger, The Catcher
in the Rye [1951])
7
!you're late and you missed the beginning then fankly you won't understand a single
thing fr the next twelve hours, you might as well go lea some maners someplace
else. (Adam Thorpe h( 1995)
8
I have a discovery to repor. [ ... ] Now, where do I start? (Michael Frayn, Headlong
[1999])
9
Given the fct that one could produce an endless list of metanarrative
comments, it is striking tat naative theory has accorded only very little
attention to such genuinely narratological phenomena as narratorial
digressions and metanarrative interventions, despite their ubiquity in
narrative literature: in spite of its indulgence in theory and terminology,
narratology, with only one single exceptionio, has hardly devoted any
attention to metanarrative comments. Neither in recent overviews or
introductions to narrative theory11 nor in specialist studies like Monika
Fludemik's Towards a 'Natural' Narratolog (1 996), Andrew Gibson' s
Towards a Postmoder Theor ofNarrative ( 1 996) or Michael Keams' s
Rhetorical Narratolog (1 999) has the phenomenon of metanarration
played aything more than a subordinate role12
6
Dickens (1966: 49).
7
Salinger ( 1958: 5).
8
Thorpe (1998: I].
9
Frayn (1999: I).
lO
1
1
2
Cf. Prince (1982: 115-128), who has devoted one subchapter to te phenomenon of
metanarrative called "Meta.narrative Signs." All other intoductions to narrative theor
include only ver fw remarks wthout, however defning metanarative comments or
offering typological difrentiations, naratological characterizations or fctional dis
tinctions. Some prelimina thoughts on this topic ca be fund in A. Ninning (200la),
(2001b).
See, e.g. the very good intoduction by MatinezSchefel (1999), who at least discuss
these problems in a short subchapter on the "Subjekt und Adressat des Erzilens (Wer
erihlt wem?)" (ibid.: 84-89).
Several seminal collections of essays likewise ignore this topic; see, e.g., Herman
(1999) and Grinzweig/Solbach (1999). Cf., however, a recent paper by Fludernik
14 Ansgar Ninning
The underlying thesis of this essay-that the phenomenon of meta
narration has thus fr been a lacuna in narrative theory-is actually con
frmed by the fw studies that are devoted to this topic or that just mention
it in passing: they neither attempt to defne the phenomenon of meta
narration or to diferentiate between the diferent types, nor do they con
sider which fnctions such expressions could flfl in individual cases13
There is also a lack of studies examining te use of metanarrative frms in
the works of individual autors or in given periods of literay history.
This rough sketch of the neglect metanarration has sufered is the
starting point of this essay, which will tr to bridge the gap by staking out
three aims: frst of all, the terms 'metanarration' or 'metanarrative com
ments of the narrator', which have only been used sporadically in nar
rative theory so far, will be defned. Next, some steps towards a typology
and a poetics of metanarration will be presented (section 3) which can
then serve as a basis fr a survey of the changing fnctions of meta
narrative expressions in English novels fom the seventeenth to the late
twentieth century (section 4). A short summary and a brief look at some of
the points that fture research might explore will complete this article
(section 5).
2. On te defnition of 'metanarration' or 'metanarrative comments'
Although the terms 'metanarration' or 'metanarrative comments' have
been used in some narratological studies14, they have not become common
or widespread categories of narrative theory or literary studies, let alone
household words of narratology15. There ae aguably two reasons fr this:
(2003), which is partly a rejoinder to my earlier aricles on the topic (see A. Ninning
(200l a], [200lb]) ad which elaborates on several of te topics addressed in this essay.
13 The only exception to this is the subchapter by Prince ( 1 982: 1 1 5-1 28) mentioned
above, who also refects on the fnctions of metaar ative pasages.
14 Cf, e.g. Genette (1 980: 228, 255), Hamon ( 1 977), Bonheim ( 1 982: 1 3), Prince (1 982:
l 1 5f.), Prince ( 1 987: 5 1), A. Niinning (1 989: 1 2{1 21 , 1 47-148, 1 56-1 57, 1 6{-1 61 ,
1 65-166, 250-251 , 308), Fludemik (1993: 443), Madsen/Madsen ( 1 995), A. Ninning
( 1 997: 340-341 ), Schefel (1 997: 46f), Cutter (1 998), and A. Niinning (2000),
(2001 a).
15 Bonheim (1 982: 13) ofers a brief defnition of the ter 'metanar ative'; cf. also Prince
( 1982: 1 1 5-1 28). On the wide variety of seemingly related terms fr various frms of
self-refexive naratives ad metafctional techniques, cf. Schefel ( 1 997: 46-7).
Fludemik (2003) discusses the diferences between the English and Gera usages of
the terms 'metaarative' ad 'metafctional' ad teir derivatives in detail.
On Metanarative 15
frstly, the term 'metafction' is so widely used in English that frms of
metanarration tend to be subsumed under this umbrella, and while 'meta
narrative' is common as an adjective, the appropriate noun traditionally
used is 'metafction' and not 'metaarrative' or 'metanaration'. Secondly,
in the fw contributions in which the term 'metanarrative' is used at all, it
is generally perceived as an English equivalent of 'grand recit' (sensu
d . h' t"
,
1
6
Lyotard) an thus as synonymous wit master narra 1ve .
The rather shabby and contradictory treatment of diferent frms of
metanarratives is indicated by the fct that in the English translation of
Genette's "Discours du recit" (1972), Narrative Discourse (1980), the
term 'metanarrative' appears in two quite diferent senses: On the one
hand, it refrs to the phenomenon of narative embedding and to nar
ratives on a hierarchically lower level: "[T]he metanarrative is a na ative
within the narrative"17. On the oter hand, Genette and his translator both
use the term as an unspecifc umbrella ter to thematize te 'interal or
ganization' of the text, i.e. fr diferent frms of self-refexive narration.
Whereas fr Genette, 'narative fnction' refrs to the story, metanarrative
expressions rather take the text itself as teir refrence point: "The second
aspect is the narrative text, which the narrator can refr to in a discourse
that is to some extent metalinguistic (metanarrative, in this case) to mark
its articulations, connections, interrelationships, in short, its interal orga
nisation"1
8
. Genette thus explicitly limits the term 'metanarrative' to the
narrator's "directing fnctions" (onctions de regie)19, although the spec
trum of metanarative expressions is much broader in practice.
1
6
The MLA bibliography ofers about 30 entries on the ter 'metanarative', almost all
of which, however, are not related to nar atology in a strict sense. As representative of
various other essays that use 'metanarative' as an equivalent of grand recit and
synonymous with 'master narrative', cf. Hutcheon (1 989/1 996), who is only concered
with the "incredulity towad metaaratives" typical of postmodemism and who uses
the ter synonymously with "grnd totalizing mater narative" (ibid.: 262).
17 Genette (1 980: 228 n. 41 ). In the French orginal, however, Genette ( 1 972: 239 n. l )
uses the term 'metarecit': "le metaecit est un recit das le recit".
18 Genette (1 980: 255). "Le second [aspect du recit] est le tete narrative, auquel le
narrateur peut se referer dans un discours en quelque sorte metalinguistique
(metanaratif en !' occurrence) pour en maquer Jes articulations, Jes connexions, Jes
interrelations, brefl 'orgaisation inteme" (Genette [ 1 972: 261-262]).
19
Genette (1 980: 255).
1 6
Ansga Ninning
In most cases, moreover, no clear distinction is made between meta
narration and metafction20, although these are in fct two very diferent
phenomena: the frst concers the narator's refections on the discourse
or the process of narration, the second refrs to comments on the fction
ality of the narrated text or of the narrator. Metanaration and metafction
have one point in common-namely, that they are both related to frms of
literary self-refrentiality; however, these two types of narrative self
refexivity difer considerably, and this point has tended to be overlooked
in all typologies so far21
Therefre, te widely used umbrella term 'metafction' not only needs
to be elaborated22, but a clear distinction also has to be made between
metanarration and other frms of self-refexive narration. Following
Wolfs defnition of metafction as a frm of discourse which makes the
recipient aware of the fctionality (in the sense of imaginary refrence
and/or constructedness) of the narative23, it becomes clear that the term
cannot be put on a par with 'metanarration'. The latter refrs more to
those frms of self-refexive narration in which aspects of narration (and
not the fctionality of the narated) become te subject of the narratorial
discourse. Moreover, whereas metafction can by defnition only appear in
the context of fction, types of metanarration can also be fund in many
non-fctional narative genres and media. Metanaative interventions may
result in a destuction of aesthetic illusion, if tey disclose the fctionality
of the characters at te same time; this, however, does not alter the basic
theoretical diference beteen metanarration and metafction.
2 Cf, e.g. the fllowing defnition of 'metafction', which is very misleading because it
actually describes the ter 'metanaration': "Metafktion liegt immer dann vor, wenn
das Erzihlen zum Gegenstand des Erzihlens wird und damit seinen unbewuBten oder
'selbstverstidlichen' Chaakter einbiBt" (Lofer et al. [1974/2001: l 13]). Elsewhere
in the sae introduction, te authors refr to "moder anmutenden Techniken von
Selbstrefexivitit und Metaaration" (ibid.: 153), however, without defning the term
'Metanaration'.
2!
The most comprehensive typology of literary self-refexivity to date can be fund in
Wolf (2001). Even though metanarrative is alluded to several times (cf. ibid.: 56,
70-71 ), it is not discussed a a category in its own right.
~~
On a more detailed subdifferentiation, cf. Wolf (1993), (2001) as well as Scheffel
(1997: 48): "[l]nsofr ist der Begrif der narativen Selbstrefexion schon a priori von
dem der 'Metafktion' zu unterscheiden." Schefel is right when he argues that
metanarative comments do not have to underine the 'fction of a fctual naration'
(ibid.: 58).
23 Cf. Wolf(l993), (2001).
On Metana ative 1 7
Naratological research has so far fcused on self-conscious fction and
self-conscious narrators24, concentrating on metafctional frms of narra
tive self-refexivity or self-refrentiality. In contrast, metanarative
comments which do not destoy the illusion of a narated world have hard
ly received any attention25 In principle, one may assume that metanar
ration, depending on the type and context, can just as well support the
illusion of authenticity created in a text and in the act of narration. The
novels written by Aphra Behn ad Daniel Defe, fr instace, well as
quite a number of 'postmoder' novels-fom William Boyd's Te New
Confessions (1987) to Kazuo lsbiguro's When We Were Orphans
(2000}-can testify to this. It is precisely the concept of narratorial i11u
sionism i.e. narrations evoking the illusion of a personifed voice, sug
gesting the presence of a speaker or narator which I have explicated and
defned elsewhere26, that renders obvious that metanaative expressions
do not have to disturb the aesthetic illusion; rather, they can serve to
create a diferent type of illusion by accentuating the act of narration, thus
triggering a diferent strategy of natralization, viz. what Fluder has
flicitously called "the fame of storytelling"27
In contrast to the widespread mingling of metanarration and metafc
tion, then, one must be aware that metanarrative comments are a distinct
frm of narratorial utterances displaying a variety of textual fnctions.
This is also indicated by the entry in the one single specialist encyclo
paedia of narratology, in which the term 'metanarrative is defned as
fllows:
metanarrative. About narrative; describing nar ve. A narrative having (a) narative
(one of its topic(s) is (a) metanarative. More spcifcally, a narative refrring to
itself and to those elements by which it is constituted and communfoated, a nar ative
discussing itself, a self-refexive narve, is metanarative
28

Those commentaries and refections which explicitly address aspects of
naration in a self-refexive manner can thus be subsumed under the term
2
4
Cf. Booth ( 1952).
~
This diferentiation is also at least implicitly made by Chatman (1978: 248): "A basic
dichotomy has suggested itself between discourse comments that do or do not undercut
the fbric of the fiction. The frer have come to be called 'self-conscious' naation."
On self-conscious fction, cf, e.g. Alter (1975), Hutcheon (1984), Waugh (1984), and
Wolf(1993).
26 LNinning (2000), (2002).
27 tlu0cIk( 1996: 341 ).
2
8
Prince (1987: 51).
18
Ansgar Ntnning
'metana ative expressions'29 Although such comments are detached fm
the narated world, they still do not possess a high degree of generality
since they refr to one specifc object Le. the act of narrating. In
metanarrative expressions, a narrator can discuss questions of literary pro
duction or aesthetic problems, or s/e can even fregound the process of
na ation itself Metanarative fnctions are dominant in those expressions
of a narrator in which attention is drawn to the narrative fnctions3
0
I
thus becomes clear that the phenomenon of metanarration cannot be re
stricted to the narrator' s 'directing fnction' , and that it has to be dis
tinguished fom metafction.
Directing fnctions, fashfrwards and fashbacks, as well as other
metanarative utterances of the narrator do not just lead to a higher degee
of self-refexivity; they also freground the act of narrating. Since such
self-refexive comments can be defned according to their refrence to the
act of naration, they make the reader realize that what s/he is dealing wit
is a narrative. It is precisely an accumulation of such metaarative ex
pressions, which Fludemik calls "a deliberate metaarrative celebration of
the act of narration," that helps to create the illusion of a 'teller' , a
personalized voice serving as a narrator: "This reading strategy may be
actively encouraged by the text if the self-refexive or metanarrative mode
. . f f th 1""
1s a promment eature o at nove .
In contrast to Genette s limiting of the term 'metanarrative' to nar-
ratorial ' directing fnctions', one can assume that all comments refrring
to the narrative process or to one of its aspects will have a metanarrative
character. Not only statements refrring to the process of narrating are
metaarative, but the narator's refrences to his or her communication
with the narratee on te discourse level also have metanarrative character:
"The overt narrator [ . . ] can comment both on the content of the narration
(story world) and on the narrating fction itself; the address to a narratee
~
According to his basic differentiation between story und discourse, Chatman ( 1 978:
248f) refers to such metanarative comments of the narator as "commentary on the
discourse": "'Self-conscious' naration is a ter recently coined to describe comments
on the discouse rather than the story" (ibid.: 228). For a more precise defnition, see
Prince (1982: 1 5f).
`" For a similar defnition, cf. Bonheim ( 1982: 1 3): "For works of literature contain some
elements outside the space/time continuum of the fctional world, including titles,
mottoes, prefces, postscripts, refections of the author or narator concering his
literary endeavours, and addresses to the reader. I shall call such elements
metanarrative."
31 Fludemik (1 996: 275, 278).
On Metaarative 19
is part of this metanarrative perfrmance"32 All narratorial fnctions
relating to the mediation, i.e. comments which refr primarily to the act of
narration or the communication situation on the discourse level, are
therefre 'metanarative' in a wider sense.
On the basis of these definitions, it seems reasonable to argue that not
all frms of self-refexive narration should be called 'metanarrative'33 A
procedure like mise en abyme, fr example, is self-refexive, but not meta
narrative. The same holds true fr all those forms of literary self
refexivity which Schefel subsumes under the term 'mirroring'34 Rather,
the term 'metanarration' or 'metanarrative' is only appropriate when the
act of narrati ng or fctors of the process of narration are discussed.
Comments with dominantly metanarrative fnctions are thus to be dis
tinguished fom metalinguistic comments35, in which attention is fcussed
on the language itself or on the polysemy of words36 Unlike meta
linguistic comments, metanarrative statements are characterized by the
fct that the narrator refects on the process of narration. I contrast to the
widespread equation of metanarration with metafction or metalinguistic
comments, Lanser uses the category "narrative selconsciousness" in the
sense of narrative self-refexivity or metanarration: "We can posit a suc
ceeding continuum of diminishing self-consciousness of the narrative
t"3
7
A d' h d

ac . ccor mg to t e mo el she puts frward, diferent levels of inten-

sity of narrative self-refexivity can be graded on a scale in which the
poles represent a well-defned level of "narrative self-consciousness" and
"narrative unconsciousness" (which she defnes as "narrators who show
3
2
Fludemik (1 993: 443).
`` Cf. also Hempfr (1 982: 1 36), who explicitly limits the ter 'autoreflexivity' to
immediate self-refexivity concerning comments on the 'narrative discourse'. On a
diferentiation between metanarative utterances and other frs of self-refective
nar ative, cf. also Prince (1 982: 1 1 7-1 1 8), Schefel (1 997), and the section on "Models
of Meta-ization" in Fluderik (2003). The most comprehensive and detailed discussion
34
of frs of litera self-reflexivit can be fund in Wolf (1 993), (2001 ).
Scheffel ( 1 997: 54f).
35 Cf. Roman Jakobson's ( 1 960) model of verbal communication, in which he
distinguishes six fnctions of laguage, among them the metalinguistic fnction. For a
systematic attempt to integrate Jakobson' s model with the various fnctions of the
narator, including metanarative utteraces, cf Ninning ( 1 989: 1 24), ( 1 997: 339f,
esp. te model on page 342).
Metalinguistic commentary can have an implicitly metanarrative character, but the
diferentiation between metalinguistic and metanarative comments is not suficiently
3
7
obvious in Prince ( 1 982: 1 21 ).
Lanser (1 981 : 1 76, 1 77).
20
Ansga Ninning
. .
,,3g)
not the slightest awareness of a narratee or a commumcat1ve context ,
respectively.
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narative self-consciousness
narative unconsciousness
Fig. 1: Grading of na ative self-consciousness ( cf Lanser 1 98 1 : 1 77)
This grading according to the level of awareness the narrator has of
his/her own role as narator and of the narrative process shall now be aug
mented by frther categories of analysis. First, the variety of frms in
which metanarration can occur has to be taken into account; and second,
the question of which fnctions these frms of narrative self-refexivity
can flfl has to be addressed.
3. Steps towards a typology ad poetics of metanaration
Although the development of a comprehensive typology and poetics of
metanarration has to await a more extensive study, some aspects of such a
project will be presented in the fllowing survey. This survey, however, is
restricted to identifing the most important sub-categories or types of
metanar ation and the criteria of diferentiation on which the classifcation
is based. Some examples fom literary texts are given to make clear how
varied the types and fnctions of metanarrative expressions can actually
be.
3
8
Ibid.
On Metanarative 21
The fllowing diferentiation of frms of metanarration is based on a
number of criteria mostly adapted fom Werer Wolfs groundbreaking
study Asthetische Ilusion und Ilusionsdurchbrechung in der Erzihl
kunst9, in which Wolf develops a typology of narrative self-refrentiality
that helps to diferentiate between various types of metafction and the
potential efect of each. Wolfs typology is based on three parameters,
"der Vermittlungsfrm, der Kontextbe ziehung und der inhaltlichen
Valenz metafktionaler Passagen'>. The frst criterion, frm of mediation,
refrs to the question of on which level of narration the speaker engaged
in metafctional refections can be situated. According to the second
criterion, contextual relation, diferent frms of metafction can be
distinguished depending on whether they appear in a central or marginal
position, on how deeply they are interrelated wit te narrated story, on
whether they appear only in singular instances or in clusters, and on how
clearly the metafctional aspects of the comment are marked. Using
Wolfs third criterion, contents value, one can diferentiate between
various frms of explicit metafction, i.e. according to the questions
whether metafction refrs to the 'fctio or the fctum status'41
of a
passage, if it contains comments on te entire text or only on parts of it, if
the commentary is on the text itself, on literature in general, or on another
text, and if the discussion of the aesthetic subject takes a rather critical
view of it or not.
The detailed typology that Wolf2 develops on the basis of these
criteria not only flls a gap in research on metafction, but can also be
applied to the feld of metanarration, provided some modifcations and
additions are made. While Wolf is primarily concered with determining
the potential destruction of aesthetic illusion through various frms of
explicit metafction, the main aim of the fllowing considerations is to
develop a set of descriptive categories for analyzing metanarrative
structures as well as fr diferentiating between various types of
metanarration. Out of the large range of criteria that might be relevant fr
a typological diferentiation of various types of metanarration, it 1s
primarily the fllowing which are particulaly productive and relevant.
` Wolf ( 1 993: esp. 220-259). See also Schefel's (1 997: esp. 54- 90) innovative typology
of vaious frs of self-refexive nar ation.
40
Wolf (1 993: 230).
41 Ibid.: 231 .
42 Ibid.: 230f
22
Asga Ninning
Using Wolfs criteria as a stating point, one can distinguish between
dominantly frmal, stuctural, and content-related subcategories of meta
narration. These can then be augmented and diferentiated by reception
oriented and fnctional criteria. Firstly, a frmal distinction can be made
between diegetic, extradiegetic, and paratextual types of metanarration,
depending on the level of communication on which the speaker of the
metanarative comments can be situated. Secondly, structural types of
metanarration can be diferentiated according to the criterion of the quan
titative and qual itative relations between metaarrative expressions and
other pars of a narrated text43 as well as the syntagmatic integration of
such metanarrative passages. Depending on the subject area or te selec
tion of topic, various types of metanarration C be distinguished thirdly,
on the basis of content. Fourthly, a typological diferentiation can be
based on the question of the potential efects and fnctions of meta
naration.
In terms of frm, various types of metanarration ca be diferentiated
according to the questions of what knd of textual speaker self-consciously
discusses the process of naration and on which level of communication
this discussion can be situated. Using the communication level of the
speaker as a staring point, the resulting diference is between dominantly
diegetic and dominantly extradiegetic frms of metanaraton. I the nrst
case, one or more character(s) of the narrated world reflect(s) on the
process of narration; in the second, metanarrative expressions are re
stricted to the narrator, who discusses narrative problems on a higher
communication level. Theoretically, metanarrative questions can also be
thematized in fame narratives or paratextual passages as well as on a
hypodiegetic level of communication. Although the act of narration and
related problems play a signifcat role on all text-interal communication
levels of a narative text, it is particularly the extradiegetic level of dis
course which is of central importance in te present context.
Metanarration is parti cularly obvious in those novels in which the
process of naration is discussed by an extradiegetic narator and in which
it is linked to metafctional expressions. Typical examples of this can be
fund on the one hand in authorally narrated classics like Henry Field
ing' s The History ofTom Jones: A Foundling (1 749), William Makepeace
`` Booth ( 1 952: 1 77) has already diferentiated between "the sheer quantity of [ . .. ]
intrusions" ad "the quality of te interventions" without, however, developing precise
criteria of diferentiation on tis basis.
On Metarrative 23
Thackeray' s Vanit Fair: A Novel without a Hero ( 1 847/48), Anthony
Trollope' s Barchester Towers (1 857) and George Eliot ' s Middlemarch:
A Study ofProvincial Lie ( 1 871/72), in which metanarative passages
have an enormous infuence on the reception process. In many
contemporary novels-such as Julian Baes's Flaubert 's Parrot (1984),
John Fowles' s The French Lieutenant 's Woman (1969), Salman Rushdie' s
Midnight 's Children (198 1 ) and Shame (1983) as well as Graham Swif' s
Water/and (1983)-metanarrative refections also refr primarily to the
extradiegetic level of narrative discourse. In contrast to those novels in
which metanarration is conveyed dominantly extradiegetically, diegetic
types of metanarration are marked by their much higher degree of
integration of the metanarrative refections in the narrated story. Several
examples of this may be fund in many eighteenth-century novels, whose
characters tell their lif stories in the frm of interpolated tales or
embedded stories4, as well as in epistolary novels like Samuel
Richardson' s Clarissa; or, The Histor ofa Young Lady (1 747/48) and
Tobias Smollett' s Te Expedition ofHumphr Cinker (1 771).
In addition to extradiegetic and diegetic frms of metanarration, the
paratextual varieties of metanarration should not be overlooked. In such
cases, the act of narrating is not discussed on the level of story or dis
course but on the level of a fctive editor, by means of fames, chapter
headings or other paratextual devices. Paratextual metanaration is parti
cularly conspicuous in many precursors of the sixteenth- and seventeenth
century novel. In the novels wrtten by Henry Fielding, the majority of the
synoptic chapter headings not only have a metanarative character, they
also contribute considerably to directing the way these novels are received
by flflling many of the fnctions discussed in the fllowing section45
Further examples are the heading of chapter one in B. S. Johnson' s
Christie Malr 's Own Double Entr (1973)-"The Industrious Pilgrim:
An Exposition Without which You Might Have Felt Unhappy"-and te
4 Cf Williams (1 998: chap. 2).
As representative of may other exaples, see, e.g. the fllowing two chapter headings
taken fom Joseph Andrews (1 742) and Tom Jones (1 749): "In which, aer some ver
fne Writing, the Histor goes on, and relates the Interiew between the Lady and
Joseph; where the latter hath set an Example, which we despair ofseeing followed by
his Se, in this vicious Age." (Fielding [ 1 967: 37]); "The Heroe ofthis great Histor
appears with very bad Omens. A little Tale, ofso LOa Kind, that some may think it is
not worth their Notice. A Word or two concering a Squire, and more relating to a
Gamekeper, and a Schoolmaster" (Fielding (1 975: 1 1 8]). On synoptic chapter head
ings, cf. Stanzel (1 982: 58-6).
24 Ansga Niinning
metanarrative refections of the fctive editor Jh Ray, Jr. , Ph.D. in the
freword of Vladimir Nabokov' s Lolita ( 1 955).
A second frmal criterion to distinguish between diferent types of
metanarration is the question whether metanarative comments cross the
border between the levels of story and discourse or not. The diference be
tween metanarration which remains within one communication level on
the one hand and metaleptic frms of metanarration derives fom this. I
the frmer case, the subject of metanarative expressions and the thema
tized object are placed on the same level of communication. I contrast to
this, metaleptic frms of metanarration are chaacterized by a transgres
sion of borders between te extadiegetic level and the diegetic world. The
strategies that Genette includes in the term narrative metalepsis' almost
always have at least an implicit metanarrative character4 Examples of
metaleptic metanaration that tend to have a potential fr destroying the
aesthetic illusion can not only be fund in postmodem novels but already
occur in Laurence Steme' s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman (1 759/67).
Thirdly, covert or implicit types of metanarration have to be
distinguished fom explicit frms, a distinction fr which the mode of
mediation can serve as a criterion. All kinds of self-refexive ' directing
fnctions' a narrator flfls draw attention to the process of narration.
Covert or implicit types of metanarration provide the reader, proleptically
or analeptically, with metatextual infrmation, thus creating coherence.
Even if a narrator pretends not to know the story in every detail, s/he
implicitly discusses the act of narration, since this 'pose of partial ignor
ance'47 transfrs the reader' s attention fom the story to the narrator and
the narration. Reader addresses are also implicitly metanarrative if they
render obvious the process of narration or the communication on the
discourse level in an indirect way. Explicit varieties of metanarration,
however, are only present if the act and process of narration is itself di
rectly discussed. Narrators can explicitly thematize the process of nar
ration in diferent ways, intensity, and detail, e.g. when discussing their
behaviour and aesthetic problems.
A furth frmal criterion fr diferentiation is the linguistic frm in
which metanarration is realized. According to this criterion, metaphoric
L Genette ( 1 980: 235): "We will extend te ter narrative metalepsis to all these
trasgressions."
On this pose of the narator in Henry Fielding' s novels, see Fuger ( 1978) and Rolle
(1 963: 85f). For an exaple of a paody of this pose, cf. Trollope (1 975: 24-25).
On Metana ative 25
and non-metaphoric frms of metanarration can be distinguished.
Classical examples of metaphoric characterizations of the narrative pro
cess are the narator's travel and culinary metaphors in Henry Fielding' s
Tom Jones. Further examples can be fund in many later works, e.g. in the
fnal chapter of Sir Walter Scott' s historical novel Waverley; or, 'Tis Sit
Years Since ( 1 8 1 4). A recent example is Adam Thorpe' s experimental
novel Still, in which the narator describes his own narration as a flm
production: "The bit you've missed was vital but I'm not rewinding and
this is a unique screening, so shucks. [ . . . ] This is the trailer, by the way'.8
I non-metaphoric metanaration, conversely, aspects of the narration are
refrred to directly and literally.
Moreover, in order to diferentiate between various types of explicit
metanarration, structural criteria refrring to the relation between the
metanarrative passages of a novel and its other parts have to be con
sidered49. In this context, the position, fequency, and strctural integra
tion of metanarative passages are relevant. Structurally determined types
of metanaration can on the one hand be distinguished according to the
quantitative relations of the metanarative and the non-metanarrative
parts. On the other hand, qualitative criteria like the syntagmatic and
semantic integration of metanarrative refections in the narrated story can
serve as criteria fr a fther typological diferentiation and description of
the various frms of metanarration.
Therefre, the frst question to be asked concering strctural frms of
metanarration is in which position metanarative comments appear in the
novel. With the help of tis criterion, maginal frms of metanaration can
be diferentiated fom central ones. Marginal varieties include those in
which the act of narating is brought up at the beginning or at the end of a
text, a frm which has been common since the Renaissance. Conversely,
metanarrative comments located in more central positions can be fund
within an ongoing story. Examples of works in which refections about the
narration occur primarily in marginal positions are Defe' s novels and
Dickens' s David Coppeiield. While in most novels listed in the bib
liography of this paper, metanarration is already introduced in the frst
chapter, it is also used repeatedly and more fequently in more central
positions. The metanarrative dimension thus plays a much greater role in
48
Thot]e ( 1 998: 2-3).
` L Wolf (l 993: 239f.), who refers to these stucturally defned frs a "[k]ontextuell
bestimmte Typen expliziter Metafktion" ad who diferentiates between various types
of metafctional comments, which will be adapted and modifed in te fllowing.
26 Ansga Niinning
these novels on account of the central position of these self-refexive com
ments and the repeated refections on the narrative process.
Secondly, the quantitative criteria of fequency of metanarrative pas
sages and of their extent compared to the narrated story can help to dis
tinguish between punctual and extensive frms of metanaration. Whereas
' fequency' refrs to the number and regularity of expressions that are
directly concered with the process of narration, ' extent' refrs to the
question of what amount of space metanarrative refections occupy in a
given text. Although both criteria can be diferentiated in theory, they tend
to be intrinsically connected in practice. This is mainly due to te fct that
increasing fequency and increasing extent result in a higher level of im
portance of metanarrative passages. Novels in which a limited number of
metanarrative expressions can only be fund sporadically include most
nineteenth-century realistic novels. Explicit metanarration, however, oc
curs much more fequently and extensively in novels like Fielding' s The
Histor of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr.
Abraham Adams (1 742) and Tom Jones, Wilkie Collins' s The Moonstone
( 1 868) and Adam Thorpe' s Still, all of which can be considered as typical
examples of extensive and marked frms of metanaration. However, their
fnctions may difer signifcantly.
A third structural criterion to diferentiate between various frms of
metanaration is the degree of integration or isolation of the metanarrative
expressions vis-a-vis te narrated story. I the case of integrated frms of
metanarration, there is a close syntagmatic connection between the meta
narrative passages of a text and its other parts, whereas isolated frms are
characterized by a clear-cut division between metanarrative and non
metanarrative passages. A typical example of the non-integrated type is
the fmous chapter 1 3 of John Fowles' s The French Lieutenant 's Woman
( 1 969), in which the authorial narrator suddenly and without prior war
ing destroys the aestetic illusion by means of a metanarrative comment:
"I do not know. This story I am telling is all imagination. These characters
I create never existed outside my own mind"50
In contadistinction to this
clear separation of actal plot and metanarrative commentary, the exten
sive metanarrative refections of the narrators in Stere' s Tristram Shandy
and Stevie Smith' s Novel on Yellow Paper or Work It Out for Yoursel
5
0
Fowles (1977: 85).
On Meta ative 27
(1 936) are inextricably bound up with the discourse as well as with the
story5
1

Closely linked to te question of the degree of syntagmatic connection
is a furth structural criterion, i.e. the degree of contextual plausibility to
which metanarrative refections can be linked up or derived fom the nar
rated story. By means of this criterion, motivated or fnctional and un
motivated or oramental frms of metanarration can be distinguished52
While in the case of motivated metanarration, the action or the discourse
itself provides a plausible reason fr the fct that a narrator or a narrating
character refects about problems of narration, the concept of largely un
motivated or oramental frms of metanarration applies when chaacters
or narrators utter metanarative comments without any obvious connection
between the latter and the events. Metanar ative expressions of the narra
tors are apparently realistically (e.g. psychologically) motivated mainly in
those novels in which the narative process is fregrounded anyway so as
to create the illusion of a personalized narrator or 'teller'-fr example in
Stere' s Tristram Shandy Stevie Smith' s Novel on Yellow Paper, Kazuo
Ishiguro' s The Remains of the Day ( 1 989), and Tibor Fischer' s The
Thought Gang ( 1 994). I contrast to these examples, there are cases of
predominantly unmotivated and isolated metanarrative expressions in
which the reader needs to establish the connection between these com
mentaries and the narated story him- or herself. A case in point is John
Berger s G. ( 1 972), in which the heterodiegetic narator at some points
breaks the primary il l usion of characters and events by using meta
narative and metafctional expressions.
Concering the diferentiation between motivated and unmotivated
frms of metanarration, there are general diferences between homo- and
heterodiegetic narrators as well53 Since a homodiegetic narrator by def
nition tells a story in which s/he is playing a (more or less) central role,
metanarrative expressions can always be set in relation to the narrated
character due to the identity between the narating I and the experiencing I
in homodiegetic naration. Therefre, not only is the narative process of a
frst-person narrator a part of the fctitious world of the characters, but
51 L. A. Ninning (2000).
On the contrast between fnctional and oramental frms of metanaration, cf. Booth
( 1 952: 1 77): "Fielding's narrative devices ae usually fnctional rather tha merely
oraental."
I would like to thank my assistant Klaudia Seibel fr various helpfl comments on the
fllowing passage.
28 Ansga Ninning
his/her narration as well as his/her refections about it are more or less
clearly motivated in the story world. Heterodiegetic narrators instances, in
contrast, report the fctitious happening fom an outsider's perspective.
Since the direct connection to the story level is missing here, meta
narrative expressions of heterodiegetic narrators tend to be less strongly
motivated than those of frst-person narators.
A ffh stuctural distinction can be made between non-digressive and
digressive frms of metaaration on the basis of the degree of digression
fom the narrated story. Although metanarrative expressions tend to result
in momentary digessions fom the narated story, te degree of digression
can vary considerably. Non-digressive frms are usually restricted to pha
tic remarks, prolepses or analepses, or short explanations about the way
the narration is proceeding. Digressive metanarration, by contrast, fre
grounds refections about the act of narrating over quite long passages,
and the narrator' s associations become the dominant principle of coher
ence. If digressions themselves become the subject of self-refexive
expressions, one can speak of 'metadigressive metanarration' . Although
there are several precursors fr tis process, it is Steme' s Tristram Shandy
(especially chapter 22 of the frst book) that is ofen-flsely-refrred to
as the progenitor of this variety54:
For in this long digression which I was accidentally led into, as in all my digressions
(one only excepted) there is a master-stroke of digressive skill, the merit of which has
all along, I far, been overlooked by my reader,-not fr want of penetration in
him,-but because 'tis an excellence seldom looked fr, or expected indeed, in a
digression;-and it is this: That tho' my digessions ae all fir, as you observe,-and
that I fy of fom what I am about, as fa and as often too as any writer in Great
Britain; yet I constatly tae cae to order afairs so, tat my main business does not
stand still in my absence
55
.
Formal and structural diferentiations can be supplemented by content
related frms of metanarration: here, te criterion fr diferentiation is the
object to which the self-refexive metanarrative expressions refr. The
` L, e.g., Tristram Shandy, book I, chap. xxii as well as IX, xiv. It should not be
overlooked, however, that similar frs of digressive metanaration cannot only be
found in Henr Fielding' s novels and those of his predecessors (cf Both 1 952: 1 80f),
but tat there are some exaples of such frs even befre Fielding' s time (cf. , e.g.,
Behn [ 1 930: 205] and Congreve [ 1 930: 250, 260, 274f.]). In Jonatha Swif's A Tale of
A Tub (1 704) a passage (Sect. VII) called "A Digression in Praise of Digressions" even
aticipates Stemeia 'metadigressions' (cf. Swif [ 1 986: 69-72]). On the phenomenon
of the digressive narator, cf. von Poser ( 1969).
55 Steme (1 980: 51).
On Metanarative 29
wide variations of content may help determine the fnctionalization of
metanarration in a given novel. Depending on the subject area and on te
selection of the topics fr discussion, various content-related frms of
metanarration ca be distinguished.
It is obvious that in terms of refrence points of metanarrative
expressions, the possibilities of diferentiation are almost endless; there
fre, this area resists systematization and classifcation, not least because
all aspects and problems of narrating can potentially be discussed in a
self-refexive way. These include refections about the choice and order of
the narated material, justifcations fr leaving things out, thematization of
the way beginnings or conclusions are shaped, refections on the relation
between story time and discourse time5
6
, as well as explanations con
cerning the narrator' s own manner of narrating. The narrator in B. S.
Johson' s Christie Malr's On Double Entr, fr example, comments on
such diferent aspects as the selection, arrangement, and contingency of
the narrated material, on his own manner of narrating, and on the many
repetitions in the narrative discourse. He also makes promises to the nar
ratee, and when he actually flfls the promises after ffty pages, he
proudly emphasizes this fct57: "Here is the story I promised you on page
29, as told to Christie at his Catholic mother' s shapely knee"58
As the preceding discussion has hopeflly served to show, Wolf' s
criteria fr a taxonomic classifcation of explicit metafction provide clues
fr a systematization of certain tyes of metanaration. But to do justice to
te particular contents of metanarrative comments, other categories con
cering the basis of narration and related problems have to be included as
well. Firstly, content-related types of metanarration can b
.
e distinguished
according to the scope of the metanarrative refrences, ranging fom se
lective to comprehensive metanaration. Crucial points here are the the
matic breadth of refrences and the question of in how much detail a text
discusses the act of naration and the problems involved. Selective types
ae characterized by their limitation to a discussion of one or just a fw as
pects of narration. I contrast to this, comprehensive metafction attempts
Cf. , e.g., Tristram Shandy' s refections on time (Tristram Shandy, II, viii; III, xviii) as
well as Trollope, Barchester Towers, chap. 26: "This scene in the bishop' s study took
longer in the acting ta in the telling" (Trollope [ 1 975: 220]).
On the frs and fnction of metana ative utterances in Christie Malry 's Own Double
Entry, cf V. Niinning (2000: 107f).
5
8
Johnson ( 1984: 79).
30 Ansga Ninning
to treat the largest possible spectrum of themes dealing with the act of nar
ration.
A second content-related criterion fcuses on the refrence point of
metanarrative expressions. Self-refexive passages can on the one hand be
restricted to autorefrential comments on the narrator' s own act of nar
rating. Such frms of ' proprio-metanaration' include comments in which
metanarrative refections refr solely to the process of naration in a given
text without any claim to general applicability. On the other hand, meta
narrative expressions can thematize the narrative style of other authors
and texts, or they can refr to the process of naration in general, thereby
claiming a wide applicability. On the basis of these diferent reference
points, one can distinguish between proprio-metanaration, allo-meta
naration and general metanarration5. Other distinctions can be made
between intratextual and intertextual metanar ation, depending on whether
a metanarrative remark refrs to other elements of the same text or to
other texts. The fllowing narratorial comment in A. S. Byatt' s The Biog
rapher 's Tale (2000) gives an example of how closely entangled these
frms can be:
In terms of writing-of the way this story has fnnelled itself into a not unusual shape,
run into a channel cut in the earth fr it by previous stories (and all our lives are partly
the same story, beginning, middle, end)--in ters of writing, this looks like a writer 's
stor. [ . . . ]
So. If I were telling the ' 1 920s' version of Phineas G. Nanson, it would end with an
'epiphany' . (Another frbidden word, though still allowed in Joyce criticism.)60.
A third content-related criterion is the question of which level or aspect
of a narrative metanarrative expressions refr to. In this context, one can
diferentiate between story-oriented and discourse-oriented metanarration.
In the case of the story-oriented variety, self-refexive expressions fcus
on the narated story. Conversely, discourse-oriented metanarration can be
fund in those comments which thematize aspects of the narrative pro
cess. On the basis of this criterion, one can distinguish between speaker
oriented or expressive types of metanarration, phatic frms which relate to
the channel of communication, and reader-oriented or appellative varie
ties. Whereas in the case of expressive frms (which can be fund aplenty
in Henry Fielding' s novels), such self-refexive comments refer primarily
to the narrator, phatic and appellative varieties fcus on keeping the cor-
5
9
These and other English ters used in this paper were coined by Fludemik (2003).
Byatt (2000: 25 1 ).
On Metana ative 31
munication channel up or on addressing the narratee, respectively. Count
less examples of reader-oriented or appellative frms of metanarration can
be fund in Stee' s Tristram Shandy and Stevie Smith' s Novel on Yellow
Paper61 The fllowing brief remark by the psychopatic narrator in Will
Self' s novel My Idea of Fun clearly demonstrates te link between reader
address and metanarration: "When I'm done we'll decide on it together,
you and I. I' ll give you the opportunity to participate in the denouement.
I'm all fr audience participation"62

A furth content-related criterion is the question of whether a meta
narrative comment characterizes the text according to its genre or text
type, leading to a diferentiation between genre- (or text-type-) specific
metanarration and oter frms devoid of such markers. Some examples of
the frst case, in which the ' type' of the narrated story is thematized, ae
the title of the frst chapter in the frst book of Fielding's Tom Jones
("Shewing what Kind of a History this is; what it is like, and what it is not
like"63, the fmous frst chapter of Charlotte Bronte' s novel Shirley ( 1 849)
("If you think, fom this prelude, that anything like a romance is preparing
fr you, reader, you never were more mistaken"64, and the fllowing com
ments of the narator in Byatt' s The Biographer 's Tale, in which the nar
rated story is characterized in a self-refexive way:
I have admitted I a writing a story, a stor which in a haphazad (aleatory) way has
become a frst-person story, and, fom being a story of a search told in the frst-person,
has become, I have to recogiza frst-person stor proper, an autobiography65.
The ffth content-related criterion fcuses on the narrator's assessment
of his/her own narrative competence, resulting in the diferentiation be
tween affrmative and undermining metanarration (i. e. between those
frms of metanarration which express the narrator' s confdence and those
l
Cf, e.g. the fllowing metanarrative prolepses and analepses in Novel on Yellow Paper,
which induces the reader to go backwads and forwad to the respective passages:
"There ae so many people. By ad by I will tell you about them all"; "[ ... ] yea and
even I'll go frther ad say that husbad of hers, whose nae I frgot, though you
fnd it wrten if you tum back a page or two" (Smith ( 1 980: , 1 08).
0?
Self ( 1 994: 1 1). At the end of the novel the nar ator returs to this comment in a fur
ther appellative metanarative utterance: "You what? Oh yes, your oppornity to parti
cipate, silly me, I wa frgetting . . . Well, of course you may, if that what you want but
give it plenty of thought, don't rsh into anything" (ibid.: 304).
63 Fielding ( 1 975: 75).
64 Bronte ( l 974: 39).
6
5
Byatt (2000: 250).
32 Ansga Niinning
frms in which the narator' s insecurity and self-doubt concering the act
of naration become obvious), with many gradual stages in between6 The
authorial narrators in Henry Fielding' s works and in many Victorian
novels are prototypes of the affrmative type of metanarration, whereas
the narrator' s belief in his/her own narrative competence has declined in
many twentieth-century novels. One early typical example of an incom
petent narrator is the servant Gabriel Betteredge in Wilkie Collins's The
Moonstone: despite many attempts, he never really succeeds in telling a
coherent story, and he openly admits his narative incompetence in meta
narrative refections. A particularly extreme example of undermining
metanarration can be fund in Patrick McGrath' s neogothic novel Te
Grotesque (1 989), in which the psychopathic frst-person narator utters
his doubts about his ability to portray events fom the past in a precise, co
herent, and objective manner in one of his many metanarrative self
refections:
So I [ . . . ] try to construct fr you as fll ad coherent an account as I ca of how things
got this way. You must frgive me if I appea at times to contradict myself, or in other
ways violate the natural order of the events I am disclosing; this business of selecting
and organizing one's memories so a to describe precisely what happened is a delicate,
perilous undertaking, and I'm beginning to wonder whether it may not be beyond
6
7
me .
A sixth content-based criterion concers the question of whether and
how each speaker assesses the thematized frms of narration, making fr
the distinction between critical and non-critical frms of metanarration.
Non-critical metanarative comments are those in which no evaluation is
expressed and which are characterized by the narator' s positive attitude
to his/her own narration and to conventionalized narrative frms. I con
trast to this, critical types of metanarration are characterized by a narator
who distances himself/herself fom prevalent conventions or treats them
with irony. This is repeatedly the case in Trollope' s Barchester novels, as
becomes obvious in the narrator's ironic criticism of stereotypical por
trayals and black-and-white presentations in many Victorian novels: "It is
ordained that novels should have a male and a fmale angel, and a male
and a female devil"6 Additionally, the fllowing critical allusions in

As fr as I know, this criterion was introduced by Lanser (1 981 : 1 78), who refes to this
scale as te "ais of self-confdence," with "confdence" and "uncertainty" as its poles.
67 McGrath (1 990: 1 14).
6
8
Trollope (1975: 222).
On Metana ative 33
Barchester Towers to te rigid conventions of the Victorian three-decker
novel stand fr many other examples:
But we must go back a litle, ad it shall be but a little, fr a difculty begins to make
itself maifst in te necessity of disposing of all our fends in the small remainder of
this one volume. Oh, that I might be allowed another!
[ . . . ]
And who can apportion out and dovetail his incidents, dialogues, characters, and
descriptive morsels, so as to ft them all exactly into 462 pages, without either
compressing them unnaturally, or extending tem arifcially at the end of his labour?69
Apart fom the frmal, structral, and content-related criteria, a furth
group of reception-oriented or fnctionally determined frms of meta
narration has to be taken into consideration. Here, the main criteria are the
potential efects and fn<:tions of metanarrative expressions, a difer
entiation which is based on the underlying assumption that an accu
mulation of metanarrative commentaies contributes considerably to a
fregrounding of the narative act and to the creation of the illusion of be
ing addressed by a personalized voice or a ' teller' .
From the point of view of reader-response criticism, te frst question
to be asked is whether metanarrative comments simulate orality or litera
cy. I the frst case, metanarrative expressions evoke the impression of a
speaking voice or fctional orality7
0
, with the narrative process and meta
narrative comments calling up a cognitive schema of an oral com
munication situation or a storytelling fame7
1
In the second case, how
ever, metanarration contributes to portraying the narative act as a writing
process, and, by means of appropriate indications (e.g. paper and pencil),
the materiality of written communication can be emphasized as well.
Whereas the metanarrative dimension in some novels can be clearly
classifed as either fctional orality (e.g. Joseph Conrad' s novels,
Salinger' s The Catcher in the Rye, and Fischer' s The Thought Gang) or
fctional literacy (e.g. Richardson' s epistolary novels, Collins' s The
69 Ibid.: 384, +.
On this efect of faked orality in narative literature, cf. Goetsch ( 1 985) and Griem
( 1 995).
f. Flu
.
derik ( 196: 341 ): "Thus, a holistic understanding of the fae of stortelling
immediately pro1ects a set of dramatis persona on the communicational level (tellers
listeners, i.e. narators and naratees) just a it helps to conceptualize the fictional worl
in ters of a situation and/or plot complete with agents and experiencers, 1. e.
chaacters."
34 Ansga Nining
Moonstone and Byatt' s The Biographer's Tale), metanarative expressions
in Stevie Smith' s Novel on Yellow Paper, Kazuo Ishiguro' s The Remains
ofthe Day and Adam Thorpe' s Sti fature refrences to both oral and
written communication, thus oscillating between both naturalization stra
tegies.
Secondly, one can distinguish between distance-reducing and distance
enhancing frms of metanarration. Despite their highlighting of the act of
narrating, metanarrative expressions of engaging narrators, e.g. the nar
rators of Elizabeth Gaskell' s and George Eliot' s novels, still encourage
te reader to empathize with the characters ad thus reduce te distance to
the fctitious world. I contrast, the metanarrative interventions of distanc
ing narrators, as in Thackeray' s Vanit Fair and Trollope' s Barchester
Towers, have the opposite efect and increase the distance between the
reader and the narrated story72
Depending on the degree to which metanarative expressions destroy
the illusionism of the story and characters, a third reception-oriented dis
tinction can be made between frms of metaarration that are compatible
with the aesthetic illusion and those which destroy it. As I have already
emphasized in the context of the distinction between metafction and
metanarration, metanarrative expressions are not necessarily destructive of
diegetic illusion. On the contrary, the extent to which this illusion is de
stroyed can vary considerably, depending on the specifc character of a
metanarative comment: narrators can use metanarration to reinfrce their
claim to trut according to te convention of realism, or they can render
obvious the constructedness and fctionality of te characters by drawing
the reader' s attention to the fct that any frer plot developments depend
on their arbitrary decision. Forms of metanarration like ' directing fnc
tions', which support the primary illusion, can eiter serve to create coher
ence or they can flfl mnemotechnic, phatic or excitement-creating fnc
tions (cf section 4) without impairing the reader' s illusion. Furthermore,
such metanarative comments can even support the illusion of autenticity
of the narrated story (and of the act of narration). This is particularly the
case in the story-oriented and genre-specifc frms of metanarration fund
in many seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-centry novels, in which
metanarrative refections often serve as a prominent authenticating stra
tegy. Since the 1970s, however, metaarrative expressions tend to be a
On the diferentiation between engaging and distancing narators, see Warhol ( 1 986),
( 1 989).
On Metanarative 35
metafctional means of destroying the aesthetic illusion. The destructive
potential of metaleptic frms of metanarration is particularly geat as they
transcend the boundary between the extradiegetic communication level
and the diegetic level of the events.
The criteria developed here are not primarily or even solely usefl fr
classifing novels according to various subfrms of metanarration. Rather,
they also provide an elaborated famework fr a precise metatextual de
scription of the poetics of diferent types of metanarrative expressions. I
the fllowing matrix, the most important types of metanarration have been
summarized, providing an overview of the criteria fr diferentiation on
which the preceding classifcation is based.
Tyes of metanarration Criteria fr
Determining These
Tyes
I. frmal tes of metanarrative communication
level and mode of
mediation
1 . diegetic vs. extadiegetic vs. paratextual vs. textual level on
hypodiegetic metanarration which the act of
naration is
discussed, i.e.
mediation situated
on the level of story,
on the level of
discourse, on the
level of paratextual
features, fther
faming or
embedding, synoptic
chapter headings, or
other paratextual
elements
2. metanarration which remains witin one
crossing the border
communication level vs. metaleptic frms between the
extradiegetic and
diegetic levels of
communication
36 Ansga Ninning
On Metanarative 37
Types of metanarration
Criteria fr
Determining These
Types
3. explicit vs. implicit metaaration
mode of mediation
of metanaration
Types of metanarration
Criteria fr
Determining These
Tyes
9. non-digessive vs. digessive vs.
degree and extent of
metadigessive metanarration
digression fom the
4. metaphoric vs. non-metaphoric metaaration linguistic frm in
which metanaration
narrated
story
is realized
III. content-related types of metanarration The 'object' of
II. structural types of metanarrative
quantitative and
qualitative
relationship of
metanarratve and
metanarrative
comments
1 0. selective vs. comprehensive metanarration scope of
metanarative
non-metanarrative refrences
parts of the text
and syntagmatic
integraton of
metanarrative
1 1 . proprio- vs. allo- vs. general metanarration as refrence parameters
well as intratextual vs. intertextual
of metanarrative
metanarration
utterances, i.e. the
narrator's own
utterances in the narrative practice,
context of the oter author' s
narrated story peculiarities, or
5. marginal vs. central metaarration position of the
metanarrative
storytelling in
general
comments in the
12. story-oriented vs. discourse-oriented
instace or aspect of
novel metanarration as well as expressive, phatic
narative process
6. punctual vs. extensive metana ation Frequency and
extent of
and appellative metanarration
that metanarrative
expressions
metanarrative dominantly refr to
comments compared 1 3. genre- or text-type-specifc vs. non-specifc the question if
to the narated story
metanaration
metanarrative
7. integrated vs. isolated metanaration degree of integration
or isolation of
expressions
characterize a
metanarative narrative as
comments fom te belonging to a genre
narated stor
8. motivated or fnctional vs. unmotivated or degee to which the
oramental metanarration action or the
discourse itself
or text tvoe
14. affrmative vs. undermining metanarration
te na ator' s
assessment of
his/er own
provide a plausible narative
reason fr meta- competence
narative comment
38 Ansgar Niinning
Types of metanarration Criteria fr
Determining These
Types
15. critical vs. non-critical metanarration Evaluation of the
narative frms
which are discussed
IV. reception-oriented types of metanarrative The potential efect
and frms determined by their function and function of
metanarrative
utterances
16. metanarration simulating orality vs. medial
metaarration simulating literacy communicative
sitation evoked and
implied strategy of
naturalization
17. distance-reducing vs. distance-enhancing te question if
metanaration metanar ative
comments induce
reader to empathize
with te characters
or create a distance
between the reader
and the narrated
storv
1 8. metaarration compatible with illusion vs. the degree of anti-
metanaration disturbing illusion illusionism of a
metanarative
utterance
Fig. 2: Types ofMetaarration
Despite its fagmentary character, this schematic overview will sufcto
show that there are a great number of diferent frms of metanarration
which narrative theory has thus far filed to identif or diferentiate.
These terminological and typological distinctions on the one hand allow
fr a more precise and more detailed description of diferent frms and
fnctions of metanarrative expressions than has been possible so far. On
the other hand, these heuristic categories of analysis ofer a basis on
On Metanar ative
39
which not only systematic diferences, but also historical changes in self
refexive narative frms can be identifed and reconstucted.
4. On the historically variable fnctions of metanarration in the
English novel
The typology and poetics of metanarration profered here also provide a
number of precise refrence points which can be employed to answer the
question of which fnctions certain frms of self-refexive narration may
flfl. Since the phenomenon of metanarration has thus far only been
discussed fom a synchronic and theoretical vantage point, the fllowing
section will give an outline of the historic variability ad polyfnctionality
of metanarrative expressions73. Firstly, I should like to stress again that
metanarative expressions do not necessarily lead to the fregrounding of
the fctionality of the narated text and/or of the process of narrating;
rather, the diferent frms of metanarration can, in fct, flfl a broad
spectrum of fnctions.
Apart fom the widespread and misleading equation of metanarration
with the destruction of the aesthetic illusion, there have been hardly any
studies concerning the fnctions of metanarrative expressions.
Nevertheless, it is certainly possible to frmulate some hypotheses as to
the fnctions that metaarrative comments can flfl74 It goes witout
saying that these hypotheses would have to be verifed by the analysis of
actual novels and short stories. In principle, however, one can assume that
both the frms of metanarration and their fnctions are subject to dia
chronic changes.
Befre the most important changes in frms and fnctions of meta
naration in the English novel are sketched fom the vantage point of their
historically variable fnctions, the fllowing matrix will give a systematic
overview of some of te most important fnctions of metanarration75
It goes without saying tat a comprehensive reconstruction of the diachronic chages in
the frs and fnctions of metanar ation will have to remain a desideraum fr a longer
study, fr which the fllowing ca only ofer some elements.
` Cf. Prince ( 1 982: 1 24f) and A. Niinning (2001 a). Generally, one can assume that
claims about the potential efects and fnctions of narative strategies are only
hypothees; cf the seminal contibution by Sommer (2000).
` It is obvious tat te scope of possible fnctions is not limited to those mentioned here.
For instance, metanar ve utterances ca serve as a signal of naratoral unreli ability
(cf. A. Ninning et al. [ 1 998]), paticulaly in the case of undermining metanaration
40
Ansga Ninning
Although in practice, metanarrative expressions can flfl several fnc
tions at once, fr the purpose of theoretical diferentiation one can assume
that one fnction will generally be predominant. The order of the fnc
tions in model 3 corresponds with the distinction between various recep
tion-oriented or fnctional frms of metanarration established above
insofr as the various functions are arranged according to a decreasing
level of compatibility with the diegetic illusion or an increasing level of
destruction of the aesthetic illusion, respectively76

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metanaration destructive
of diegetic illusion
Fig. 3: Functions ofmetaa ative comments of the narator
In Elizabethan prose and other precursors of the seventeenth-century
novel, metanarrative expressions tend to be realistically motivated, of
limited number, and relatively isolated. Mostly, they serve as a means of
phatic communication ad coherence frmation ad as authenticating stra
tegies. I Renaissance prose-e.g. in Thomas Delaney's short novels Jack
(e.g. the example of McGrath's The Grotesque refred to above) and in those cases
where the narator's self-refexive characterzation of his/her own mode of narating
does not match this mode; strking exaples of this ca be fund in Edga Allan Poe's
shor stories, te beginning of "The Tell-Tale Heart" ( 1 843) providing a case in point.
A comparison with Prnce's ( 1 982: 1 24f.) refections on the fnctions ofmetanarative
signs already shows that the model and the fllowing theses on the fnctions of meta
narative comments certainly do not exhaust this largely unexplored topic.
On Metanarative 41
ofNewberie (1 597) and Thomas ofReading (1 600) or in Thomas Nashe' s
picaresque novel The Unfortunate Traveller, or the Lie ofJack Wilton
(1 594)- metanarration can be fund only rarely and in maginal positions
without any fregrounding of the act of narration over long passages.
I most late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century novels, a larger num
ber of metanarative expressions tan in Renaissance prose occurs. Prior
to Steme, however, they do not serve primarily as a means of destroying
the aesthetic illusion, but have completely diferent fnctions. Indepen
dent of te question of whether it is a frst-person or an authorial narator
who utters metanarrative commentaries and explanations, the fre
grounding of the act of naration and the constuction of a personalized
narrator, who is conscious of his/her narration, is usually not detrimental
to the construction or maintenace of the plot and character illusion. In
Aphra Beh's and Daniel Defe' s novels, metanarrative expressions fnc
tion as authenticating strategies intended to underline the supposedly
documentary character of the narrations, as the fllowing example fom
Behn' s The Fair Jilt (1 688) will illustrate: "I do not pretend here to
entertain you with a fign'd Story, or any Thing piec' d together with
noveltick Accidents; but every Circumstance, to a Tittle, is Truth"77 In
addition, the narrator' s self-refexive consideration of his/her own narra
tion ofen has a moral or didactic efect.
The quantitative and qualitative importance of metanarration in the
novels of Henry Fielding and many of his immediate-imitators78 as well as
the spectrum of fnctions the various metanarrative techniques flfl is
much greater than in any previous works in English narative literature.
The fnctions range fom coherence-inducing and mnemotechnic ' direct
ing fnctions' and phatic, communicative, and didactic fnctions to self
characterizations of the narrator79 and an artistic game directing the
reader' s reception, in which the opening up of the "relevant horizons of
knowledge"8
0
is of central importance. I addition to these, we could on
the one hand add the comical and parodistic fnctions81 on te other hand
the extensive use of metanar ation in Fielding serves a literary means of
staging authorship and poetological self-refection, refecting Fielding' s
Behn ( 1 967: 74). Cf. also the very similar beginning of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, or
7
8
The Royal Slave. A Tre History (1 688) (Behn [ 1 930: 147]).
Booth ( 1 952: 1 80f).
79 lbid.: 1 79; Prince ( 1982: 1 24).
8 Cf. Figer ( 1 978: 201 ).
8
1
Cf. Booth ( 1952: 78f ).
42 Ansga Ninning
attempt to establish the novel in the neoclassicist system of genres and to
frmulate a theor of the novel.
Beginning with Laurence Steme and then in Romantic narative prose
a basic change took place concering the importance and the fnctions of
metanarration which, fom the late ei ghteenth century onwards, began to
play a more central role, developing in the direction of metafction. In
Stere's novel Te Lie and Opinions of Tstram Shandy Gentleman, the
illusion of a personalized narrator or 'teller' is intensifed by the clear
temporal and local deictic situatedness of the act of narration and by the
narrator s repeated self-refexive thematization of it. Moreover, in
Stere s novel there are several chapters which are primarily or even
completely metanarrative. Out of the large number of dominantly meta
narrative chapters which comment on Tristram' s narrative manner and
which ofen characterize it very accurately, only a fw examples can be
given bere: Tristram' s refections about 'bobby-horses' which are im
portant fr the characterizations of the main characters (Book I, chap. viii,
xxiii and xxiv); bis remaks on the value of dedications, which can be
fund in the eighth and ninth chapter of the frst book (I viii, ix); the
reproaches be makes to an inattentive reader (I, xx); Tristram ' s proud
claim that the reader could never guess what comes next (I, xxv); the
playfl dialogue with his critics, and the self-refexive characterization of
his book as "a history-book [ . 4 a ] of what passes in a man' s own mind" {II,
ii)82; my chapter upon chapters {IV, x)83; glancing back on the story as
told so far {VI, i; VI xxvi); half a chapter consisting of lines that thema
tize the peculiarities of his own narative style in a self-refexive manner
(V, xl). Finally, some chapters are even devoted to the omnipresent di
gressions, which are so central that they become the subject of meta
narative reflections 0r metadigressions' . Both the quantity and the fnc
tions of the metanaative passages in Tritram Shandy support the thesis
put frward elsewhere84 that the act of naration, the digressions and the
narratorial illusionism that is created in Stere' s novel by means of these
strategies are neither secondary nor subordinate to the diegetic illusion,
but are in fact primar and constittive fr this book.
Instead of situating Stere s novel in the tradition of a "hard anti
illusionism"85, one can just as well call it a milestone in the history of the
8
2
Stee (1 980: 61 ).
83 Ibid.: 204.
84 Cf. A. Ninning (2000).
85 Wolf(1 993: 530).
On Metaar ative 3
'mimesis of narrating' (' Mimesis des Erzahlens' 8
6
) on the basis of a
reception-oriented and fnctional analysis of the act of narration and
metanarration. However, on account of the hypertrophy of metanarrative
expressions, Tristram Shandy does not just represent or imitate the act of
narrating; rather, the text is a novel about naration87. One can even go so
far as to designate the act of narrating and metanarration as the most
important elements providing coherence in Steme' s novel because it is
primarily the digressions and the metanarrative expressions used by the
verbose narator which give the seemingly chaotic novel some impetus,
coherence, and continuity88.
Although it is not the narator but a fctive editor who is the subject of
the metanarrative comments in Thomas Carlyl e' s Sartor Resartus
(1 833/34), there are similarities between Steme' s and Carlyle' s novels
fom a fnctional point of view: in both cases, the metanarrative com
ments not only promote ' an extradiegetic secondary illusion of a close
proximity of narrator/editor'89, but they also flfl similar parodistic and
metafctional fnctions. I addition, they serve as a medium fr poeto
logical and aesthetic self-refection, and they underline the literary staging
of subjectivity in bot works.
In realistic nineteenth-century novels, metanarrative expressions again
have quite diferent fnctions: since they strengten "the complicity of the
persons of te outer communication level"9, they primarily serve to create
a trust-inducing conversation between the explicit narrator and the narra
tee, establishing their agreement about basic nors and values. This fnc
tion is especially apparent in George Eliot's novels Scenes ofClerical Lie
(1 857) and Adam Bede ( 1 859), in which both the autorial narrator and
the naratee fnction as observers of the characters91 Eliot' s humanistic
and aesthetic concer to endear simple, ordinary individuals to the reader
ad to ask the reader fr his/her sympaty and understanding is repeatedly
stressed by the narator's metanarative comments:
8
6
See A. Ninning (2000).
87 Cf. Figer ( 1 983: 1 79), who describes Steme' s novel as a paradigm of "bewuBt
gesta\tetes, sich seiner Problematik innewedendes Erzihlen."
88
Cf. also Booth ( 1 952: 1 85) ad A. Niinning (2000).
89 Cf. Wolf(1 993: 570).
Ibid.: 463.
' Cf Booth (1 952: 1 78) a well as Carlisle (1 98 1 : 1 81): "The narator does not anounce
his understanding of a chaacter; he introduces himself to the reader, creates a bond
between himself and his listener, and only then rouses the reader to the activities that
must issue in the discover of the character's appeal."
44 Ansga Nining
THE REV. AMOS BARTON, whose sad frtnes I have undertaken to relate, was,
you perceive, in no respect an ideal or exceptional chaacter; and perhaps I a doing a
bold thing to bespeak your sympathy on behalf of a man who was so ver fr fom
remakale [ . . . ].
[ . . . ]
For not having a lofty imagination, as you perceive, and being unable to invent
thrilling incidents fr your ausement, my only merit must lie in the truth wit which I
represent to you the humble experience of ordinar fllow-mortals. I wish to stir your
sympathy with commonplace toubles-to win your tears wt real sorow [ .. . ]92.
The pletora of expressive, phatic, and appellative frms of metanaration,
which is characteristic of Victorian novels and which fregrounds the act
of narration, derives fom the attempt to reach a consensus on aesthetic
and moral values. Engaging narators often employ metanarrative state
ments in order to promote a humanist cause, attempting to awaken the
reader' s sympathy fr the personal fte of others. In contrast to this type
of narrator, who is paticularly evident in George Eliot' s novels and who
refects the author's aesthetics93, metanarrative interventions of distancing
narrators have slightly disengaging efect, which tends to undermine the
aesthetic illusion, but they do underline the "claim to moralistically true
mimesis"94
Metanarrative insertions in the Victorian novel frthermore often
create coherence, a fnction te importance of which should not be under
estimated in view of the size of many novels and the mode of serial
publication. I contrast to Fielding' s and Sterne' s narrative modes, the
coherence-increasing fnctions in most nineteenth-century novels (with
the exception of those written by George Eliot) refr less to te discourse
level than to the level of the story and the ofen complex plot. Thus, there
are not only many intertextual cross-refrences between Trollope' s
Barchester Towers and the later Barsetshire-novels, but also a number of
metanarrative expressions which refer to the other works of the
Barsetshire-cycle. Such intertextual metanarative expressions also show
that the narrator presupposes the reader' s prior knowledge of earlier
novels in the cycle: "It is hadly necessary that I should here give to the
public any lengthened biography of Mr. Harding, up to the commence
ment of this tale"95
92 Eliot ( 1 973: 80, 97).
93 Cf A. Niinning ( 1 989).
94 Cf. Wolf(1 993: 585).
95 Trollope (1 975: 12).
On Metanar ative 45
Aother important fnction of metanarrative comments in Victorian
novels consists in glossing over the omission of taboo areas or con
versely, in fregrounding the exteral ad interal censorship inhe;ent in
the system of literature of the time. Two examples fom William Make
peace Thackeray' s Vanit Fair or Athony Trollope' s Phineas Finn
( 1 869) illustrate how metanaration can have a satiric fnction by throw
ing a fw critical asides at prevalent ideas of morality:
We must pass over a part of Mrs Rebecca Crawley' s biography with that lightness ad
delicacy which the world demands-the moral world, that has, perhaps, no particula
objection to vice, but an insuperale repugnance to hearng vice called by its proper
name
9
.
N
Mr Barringon Erle's reply Rtat suggestion I may not dae to insert in these pages
97
.
Furthermore, metanarrative comments in many Victorian novels not
only fnction as a means of narratorial self-characterization and of
emphasis, but tey also contribute to poetological self-refection9
8
, which
was already fregounded in Fielding' s works. This poetological fnction
s particulaly apparent in the early and later novels by George Eliot99, but
it can also be fund in works of many other Victorian novelists as the
fllowing example fom Barchester Towers will exemplif: "Ad here,

erhaps, it may be allowed to the novelist to explain his views on a very

important point in the 3 of telling tales"10
The ubiquity of metanarrative expressions since the beginnings of the
novel (if not as fr back as since the beginning of naration itself tends to
decline in moderism. Tis is due to moderism' s ideal of objectivity and
the prefrence of a ' dramatic' or ' scenic' mode of narration, ideals that
can be traced back to Friedrich Spielhagen' s, Henry James' s, and Percy
9
6
Thackeray (1 967: 676).
9
7
Trollope ( 1 972: 1 24).
Cf. Prnce ( 1 982: 124f).
For a mor
_
e detailed discussion, cf. A. Ninning ( 1 989: 1 47-1 75, 242-265); as
represntatlve of a larg number of other examples, cf the following poetological
refection of the narator M Middlemarch: "And here I a naturally led to reflect on the
means of elevating a low subject. Historical parallels are remarkably efcient in this
way. The chief objection to them is, that the diligent nar ator may lack space, or [ . . . ]
may not be able to think of them with any degree of particularity [ . . . ]-since there
never was a tue story which could not be told in parables where you might put a
monkey for a margrave, and vice versa-whatever has been or is to be narated by me

about low people, may be ennobled by being considered a paable" (Eliot [ 1 965: 375]).
Trollope ( 1 975: 1 21 ).
46 Ansga Ninning
Lubbock' s normative theories of the novel101 Even in this period of
literary history, however, which is characterized by the ideals of an
' objective' and 'dramatic' narration, some novels stand out on account of
their clearly marked metanarrative dimension. Novels like Joseph
Conrad' s Heart ofDarkness ( 1 899) and Lord Jim (1 900), Ford Madox
Ford' s The Good Soldier ( 1 91 5) and his tetralogy Parade 's End
( 1 924/28), Geoffey Dennis' s Harvest in Poland ( 1 925) as well as Stevie
Smith' s Novel on Yellow Paper may serve as examples. From a fnctional
point of view, Smit' s use of metanarration, which is highly idiosyncratic
not only in the context of moderism, difers sharply fom that of most
eighteenth- and nineteent-century novels. I Smith' s novels, the numer
ous metanarrative insertions not only have a phatic and appellative char
acter, but they also intensif the impression of spontaneous speech and
fctional orality, thus, contributing to a staging of subjectivity similar to
tat in Tristram Shandy10
Numerous English novels fom the second half of the twentieth century
demonstrate that metanarrative insertions can certainly flfl metafctional
fnctions and that they can serve as an instrument of destroying the die
getic illusion. One early but typical example is the game played by the
authorial narrator with the fctitious (and real) addressee in B. S. Jobnson's
Christie Malr 's Own Double Entry: "In Christie Malr 's Own Double
Entr, the play with conventional modes of narration is to a large degree
based on the metanarative and anti-illusionistic commentaries by which
the authorial narrator fregrounds and breaks cental conventions of real
ism"1
03
. The fllowing three narratorial comments show how closely
metanarration and metafction are connected in Christie Malr 's Own
Double Entry.
1
01 Cf also Wolf ( 1 993: 654): "Im Zeichen der 'Neutralisierung' des Erzihlens, des
Schwindens eines greifbaen Erzihlers und der Entfemung von jener 'Objektivitit',
iber die sich noch im Realisus eine fste Briicke zwischen Werk und Leser herstellen
lieB, ist eine solche Kommunikation obsolet geworden und mit ihr die fi her so of Z
beobachtende kompensatorische Sekundirillusion der Nie einer vertauenswirdigen
Verittlungsinstaz."
l02
For a more detailed discussion, cf. A. Ninning (2000: 79-87).
103 V. Ninning (2000: 1 07). "Da Spiel mit konventionellen Erzihlverfhren beruht in
Christie Malr 's On Double Entr Z einem groBen Teil auf den metanarativen und
illusionsdurchbrechenden Kommentaren der auktorialen Erzihlinstanz, die dadurch in
Form von foregrounding zentrale Konventionen des Realismus bewuBtmacht und
durchbricht." (my translation)
On Metaar ative .
47
For the fllowing passage it seems to me necessary to attempt transcursion into
Christie's mind; a illusion oftanscursion, that is, of course, since you know only too
well in whose mind it all really takes place.
[ . . . ]
I shall now attempt a little dialogue beteen Christie and the Ofce Superisor, as if it
had happened.
[ . "
]
An attempt should be made to characterise Christie' s appearance. I do so with
diffdence, in the knowledge that such physical descriptions are rarely of value in a
novel. It is one of the limitations; ad tere are so many others. May readers, I should
not be surprised to lea if appropriate evidence were capable of being researched, do
not read such descriptions at all, but skip to the next dialogue or more readily
assimilable section. Again, I have ofen read and head said, many readers apparently
prefer to imagine the characters fr themselves. That is what draws them to the novel,
that it stimulates their imagination! Imagining my chaacters, indeed! Investing them
wit characteristics quite unknown to me, or even at vaance with such descriptions a
I have given! 10
In novels like Martin Ami s' s London Fields ( 1 989) and Salman
Rushdie' s Midnight 's Children ( 1 98 1 ), metanarrative comments are also
partially fnctionalized in a metafctional way. However, they relate less
to the fregrounding of the arifciality of each work, flflling quite dif
frent fnctions as well. Metanarrative comments in Kazuo Ishiguro' s
novels A Pale View of Hills (1 982), An Artist of the Floating World
( 1 986), and The Remains ofthe Day ( 1 989), in which the narators' con
tinued refection about narrating becomes part of an attempt to come to
terms with the past and to justif oneself, flfl quite diferent fnctions
yet again.
Despite the fagmentary character of this sketch of the various and his
torically changing functions metanarative comments might flfl, it
should have become clear that, depending on the design of the act of
narration and on each type of metanarative comment, diferent fnctions
are dominant in each individual case. As narrative language is poly
fnctional, one can generally assume that there are variable dominance
relations between the diferent fnctions and that they can overlap, inten
sify or relativize each other105 This survey moreover highlights that not
10 Johson ( 1 984: 23, 39, 51 ).
1
0
5 Fuger ( 1 978: 214).
48
Ansgar Ninning
only the frms, but also and especially the fnctions of metanarration are
as much subject to historic variability as other types of narative.
5. Conclusion
When taking a retrospective look at the desiderata mentioned at the be
ginning of this paper, the fllowing preliminary conclusion can be drawn.
It has frstly become obvious that metanaration cannot be equated with
metafction, neither frmally nor fnctionally, and that extensive meta
narration does not automatically lead to a disruption or destruction of
aesthetic illusion, but can have a host of other potential fnctions.
Secondly, it was pointed out that there are manifld types of metanarative
comments which can be distinguished on the basis of various clearly de
fnable criteria. The vast range of frmal types of metanaration thirdly
corresponds to a similar multitude of fnctions that metanarrative ex
pressions can flfl. Further work on the fnctional hypotheses outlined in
section 4 will render them more precise, modif tem or revise tem.
Considering the theoretical, defnitional, typological, and fnctional
diferences profered in this paper, it is self-evident that the broad feld of
metanarration has not yet been treated in an adequate, much less an ex
haustive way. Altough I have tried to develop a more precise, systematic
and thorough description of metanarration tha has existed so far, my aim
in doing so was much more simple and modest, i.e., in Aleida Assmann' s
words: "The value of terminological distinctions can only be justifed if
they lead to more diferentiated descriptions"10 Therefre, the question
arises what can be gained fom the narratological and typological difer
entiations introduced above. The best answer will be to give a short over
view of the use and potential applications of the typology I have de
veloped.
The heuristic fnction of narratological categories-like the various
frms of metanaration-is to develop 'tools' fr asking precise questions
concerning the analysis of narratives as well as fr frmulating clear
hypotheses about the potential fnctions of metanarrative expressions.
Clealy defned terms have the enormous advantage of increasing te level
of analytical diferentiation, making fr transparent scrutiny and enabling
readers to fllow each analytical step. Furthermore, the categories thus
10
6 Assman ( 1 991 : 1 51 ). "Der Sinn jeder terinologischen Distinktion kann sich nur in
einer diferenzierteren Beschreibung rechtferigen." (my traslation)
On Meta ative 49
developed have a descriptive fnction in that they allow fr the iden
tifcation of metanarrative phenomena and fr their detailed description.
The categories and models also flfl typological fnctions, since they
make it possible to diferentiate between the various types of meta
narrative comments and to record their characteristics in a systematic way.
Another fnction is the comparatistic useflness of the typology, fr it
provides a standard fr comparative studies concered with working out
the characteristic narratorial fnctions in the works of various authors
:
periods of literary history, and national literatures. That the typological
model and the poetics of metanarration outlined above moreover have
great interpretative value and ae very usefl when it comes to literary his
tory ae points which ftre studies will have to prove.
Finally, I would like to stress that diferentiated research of the frms
fnctions, and diachronic development of metanarrative commentary i
still among the desiderata of narratological reseach. The criteria profered
here provide us with detailed categories of analysis fr the description of
various types of self-refexive narrative processes that not only allow fr a
det

iled analysis of metanarrative passages in a novel or a short story, but

which also lend themselves to a terminologically exact reconstruction of
the development in self-refexive narative frms over various periods of
literary history, not only in narrative fction, but in other genres as well.
The intriguing question of the use of diferent frms of metanaration in
poety and drama, fr instance, and the potential applicability and usefl
ness of the categories sketched out in this paper are complex issues which
naratology has not even begun to gauge
10
7 Concering their application,
it is particularly those categories that refr to author-related, epoch
specifc, comparatistic and genre-theoretical problems which should be
considered. Generally, a diferentiation has to be made between syn
chronic and diachronic aspects. In any case, the hope remains that the
frms and fnctions of self-refexive narration will be examined more
thoroughly in the fture by means of the analytical categories and models
to describe metanarrative comments introduced in this paper than the
. . .
See, however, the p10neermg article by Hihn and Schonert (2002), which clearly
demonstrates the heuristic useflness of a naratological analysis of poetr as well as
Hihn' s contibution to the present volume: "Transgeneric Na atology: Application to
Poet."
50
Ansga Nining
. h d "bl

previous confation of metafction and metanarratlon as ma e poss1 e .

As metanarrative comments have been placed at the end of many nar
ratives since the Renaissance, it is appropriate here to give the last meta
narrative word to one of the self-refexive narrators and to take leave of
the reader:
And thus (gentle Reader) have I finished my storie of these worthy men, desiring thee
to take my paines in good par, which will incourage me to greater matters, perceiving
this curteously accepted. (Thoma Deloney, Thomas ofReading ( 1 600])
10

For an excellent ad thought-provoking critique and elaboration of many of the

categories outlined above, see Fludemik' s (2003) groundbreaking typology and appli
cation.
V
Deloney (1929: 1 55).
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Behn, Aplua
On Metanarative
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