Russian Postmodernist Metafiction

One of the most outstanding properties of Russian postmodernist fiction is its reliance on metafictional devices which foreground aspects of the writing, reading or structure, and draw attention to the constructed nature of fiction writing. Some common metafictional strategies include overt commentary on the process of writing, the presence of an obtrusive narrator, dehumanization of character, total breakdown of temporal and spatial organization and the undermining of specific literary conventions.
This book examines the most representative postmodernist texts and addresses the following questions: How widespread is the use of metafiction in contemporary Russian literature? What are its most pronounced forms? What is the function of metafictional devices? How innovative are Russian postmodernist writers in their use of metafictional techniques?
This study reveals the unique contribution of postmodernist writers to the development of Russian literature through their systematic use of metafiction and their bold experimentation with new metafictional devices on all the principal levels of the text, including narration, plot, characterization, setting and language.

Autorentext

Nina Kolesnikoff is Professor of Russian at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. She published numerous articles on twentieth-century Russian literature in North-American and European Slavic journals. She is author of three monographs, including Bruno Jasienski: From Futurism to Socialist Realism, Yury Trifonov: A Critical Study and The Myth in the Works of Chingiz Aitmatov.

Inhalt
Contents: Narrative strategies Metafictional Plot Structures Characters as Verbal Constructs Heterotopian Setting Stylistic Experimentation Eccentric Typography.