Four of Them

Good ol' Wikipedia defines 'metafiction' as: a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion. It is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually irony and self-reflection. It can be compared to presentational theatre, which does not let the audience forget it is viewing a play; metafiction does not let the reader forget he or she is reading a fictional work. As, really, when has Wikipedia ever been wrong?

I really do love this subgenre. It's much trickier than Breaking The 4th Wall, because you've got to play around the Wall. Often associated with modern or postmodern fiction. It's not so blatant and obvious. Here are some example situations, as helpfully explained by (yeah) Wikipedia:

A novel about a writer creating as story (mild)

A novel about a reader reading a novel

A novel that features itself as it's own prop or plot device (see: Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Story within a story (Sophie's World)

A story referencing the specific conventions or tropes of a story (characters, title, paragraphing, plots, etc.)

A story where the narrator intentionally exposes themselves as the author.

A novel where the book itself seeks interaction with the reader (see: House of Leaves)

Anything non-linear

Narrative footnotes in a story or novel, commenting on the story while furthering it (see: Everything is Illuminated)

A novel where the author (not the narrator) is a character (see: JPod, Everything is Illuminated, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Life of Pi, anything by Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)). This is not to be confused with an autobiography or memoir, as this character is, again, not the narrator.

"A novel in which the author/narrator spends the entire book comparing life notes with an author-ghost from another era"

A parallel novel which has the same setting and time period as a previous work, and many of the same characters, but is told from a different perspective (see: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, in parallel with Hamlet)

Any situation that features magical or illogical scenerios appear in an otherwise realistic setting (One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez)

Some examples of metafilm include: Adaption., by Spike Jonze, Fellini's 8 1/2, anything involving Charlie Kaufman, anything involving the creation of a movie, anything by Michael Winterbottom (especially Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, itself adapted from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy: Gentleman), TV shows where the theme song is whistled, hummed, or sung by a character, anything that "directly references another work that internally references the first work" (like: Weird Al appearing on The Simpsons, while he himself sings Simpsons-referencing songs).

Characters aware they are in a work of fiction (Stranger Than Fiction, where the whole plot involves Will Ferrell finding out he is in a work of fiction)

Characters in a film or a television series who mention and/or refer to the actors or actresses that portray themselves.

Characters who do things because those actions are what they would expect from characters in a story (Scream)

"A real pre-existing piece of fiction X, being used within a new piece of fiction Y, to lend an air of authenticity to fiction Y" (Wes Craven's New Nightmare frequently discusses A Nightmare on Elm Street, while actors from the latter play 'themselves' in the former).

A story where the author is not a character, but interacts with the characters (Breakfast of Champions)

A story within which the very story itself (or a story based on it) is a work of fiction (I don't know, the Supernatural novels or something).

None of this is to be confused with meta-referential, which would, for example, be a blank page in a book that says "This page is intentionally left blank". Then, of course, it would not be blank, but that's a whole new ballpark.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is riddled with meta.

The Hitman movie has the eponymous character diving through a window, only to find two children playing the Hitman video game.

Funny Games might be this, or it might just be Breaking The 4th Wall. I'm leaning towards the latter, though.

Last Action Hero, but ugh.

the term "metafiction" was first coined by William H. Glass, author of The Tunnel, in the 1970 essay “Philosophy and the Form of Fiction”.

I would look into books and movies of this type, as they are kind of awesome. Especially books by Jasper Fforde.

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In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde's ingenious fantasy-enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel--unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.

If you are my sister, you would love living in this book. Or, for that matter, if you have certain obsession with any pre-20th century literature, you'd want to make your own Prose Portal. Yay stupid in-jokes!

To cover what the above summary doesn't, this is a world where the arts are Serious Business. There are several federations dedicated to Charlotte Bronte, whole gang wars are waged between Contemporary art-lovers, and Surrealists, changing one's name to that of your favorite writer is so common they must be numbered (after a court case where the defendant, victim, arresting officer, witness, landlord, and judge were all named Alfred Tennyson), and our protaganist's uncle has invented both literal Bookworms, Will-Speak machines (to get your daily fix of Shakespeare for just ten pence) sit on every corner and a thing called the Prose Portal, where people can go hop in-and-out of their favorite books, stories, and poems.

Here, there also exists a villian so evil and powerful, you can't even say his name out loud, as he can hear it from 100 feet away. Bullets don't affect him, he can take on the appearence of anyone, and he can manipulate people into killing themselves without giving it a second thought. He is, probably, the Bad Guy to end all Bad Guys. After stealing the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit, kidnapping Thursday's uncle Mycroft and his machine, he plucks out the minor character of Mr. Quaverly, and murders him. And, because the text he stole was original, the character disappears from every copy in existence.

This book, with it's sprawling mythology (explained in snippets of in-universe literature at the beginning of each character), is slightly more interesting than the story itself. With the passing references to fantastic alternate-historical events, and the secondary political story involving the still-waging Crimean War (for those of you not brushed up on your history, it was between the British Empire, and the Russian Empire (who, here, still has a czar), with the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia on Britain's team, that was fought for 3 years beginning in 1853), particularly a battle that Thursday fought in, and where her brother died. So, you know, there's some angstin' over that.

Some of the melodrama surrounding this particular plot device is forgivable by the shear wit dripping from every sentence. The way Fforde describes the various units of SpecOps--Special Operations--where everything under 13 is classified, the door-to-door Baconians (people who insist Francis Bacon wrote Shakepeare's plays), the interactive performances of Hamlet akin to The Rocky Horror Picture Show , you can tell he knows his shit, and could go on for pages just describing every aspect of this universe. I could go on for hours describing what he did put down.

Problems? Sure. The characters can get annoyingly preachy about this-and-that, mostly over the Crimean war. It spends pages trying to get to the point. Et cetera. But it more than compensates with it's imagery, the mind-fucks it plays with you (especially concerning Shakespeare and time travel). This is the first in a series, and I think it'll get better and more bizarre as it goes on.

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