CHL 436C Metafiction & Self-Reflexivity
Over the past two decades, the postmodernist interest in fluid meaning-making, the possibility of multiple meanings within a single text, and a foregrounded interest in playfulness in literary creation has infused literature for children and young adults. The overt and intentional foregrounding of the text as a fiction asserts a vitality that excites creators and establishes new subject positions for readers. This course examines central aspects of metafiction in literature for children and young adults with particular attention to framing devices, polyphonic narrations, obtrusive narrators, parodic play, intertextuality, typographic experimentation, and a mingling of styles, genres, and modes of discourse.