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Literary Criticism Books & Reading

Narcissistic Narrative

The Metafictional Paradox

by (author) Linda Hutcheon

Publisher
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Initial publish date
May 2013
Category
Books & Reading, Study & Teaching, Semiotics & Theory

  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780889201026
    Publish Date
    Jun 1981
    List Price
    $85.00 USD

  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781554585021
    Publish Date
    May 2013
    List Price
    $34.99

  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781554589104
    Publish Date
    May 2013
    List Price
    $32.99

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Description

Linda Hutcheon, in this original study, examines the modes, forms and techniques of narcissistic fiction, that is, fiction which includes within itself some sort of commentary on its own narrative and/or linguistic nature. Her analysis is further extended to discuss the implications of such a development for both the theory of the novel and reading theory.
Having placed this phenomenon in its historical context Linda Hutcheon uses the insights of various reader-response theories to explore the “paradox” created by metafiction: the reader is, at the same time, co-creator of the self-reflexive text and distanced from it because of its very self-reflexiveness. She illustrates her analysis through the works of novelists such as Fowles, Barth, Nabokov, Calvino, Borges, Carpentier, and Aquin. For the paperback edition of this important book a preface has been added which examines developments since first publication. Narcissistic Narrative was selected by Choice as one of the outstanding academic books for 1981–1982.

About the author

Linda Hutcheon holds the rank of University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. A specialist in postmodernist culture and in critical theory, on which she has published nine books, she has also worked collaboratively in large projects involving hundreds of scholars.

Linda Hutcheon's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, Selected by Choice as one of the outstanding academic books for 1981–1982.

Other titles by

Greening the Maple

Canadian Ecocriticism in Context

edited by Ella Soper & Nicholas Bradley
contributions by Northrop Frye, Margaret Atwood, Rosemary Sullivan, Sherrill E. Grace, Heather Murray, D.M.R. Bentley, Laurie Ricou, Linda Hutcheon, Gabriele Helms, Susie O'Brien, Jenny Kerber, Catriona Sandilands, Cheryl Lousley, Linda Morra, Stephanie Posthumus, Elise Salaun, Rita Wong, Misao Dean, Carrie Dawson, Pamela Banting, Adam Dickinson, Travis V. Mason & Nelson Gray

Narcissistic Narrative

The Metafictional Paradox

by (author) Linda Hutcheon

The Canadian Postmodern

A Study of Contemporary Canadian Fiction, Reissue

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The Postwar Novel in Canada

Narrative Patterns and Reader Response

by (author) Rosmarin Heidenreich
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Rethinking Literary History

A Dialogue on Theory

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George Woodcock's Introduction to Canadian Fiction

by (author) George Woodcock
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Double-Talking

Essays on Verbal and Visual Ironies in Canadian Contemporary Art and Literature

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Leonard Cohen and His Works

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Narcissistic Narrative

The Metafictional Paradox

by (author) Linda Hutcheon