Today in our afternoon reading group we pondered the concepts of magical realism, meta-fiction, and the identity and the role of the sciolist in Zakes Mda's Cion. Our group had a great discussion on "Who is the sciolist? Is he the author, Zakes, himself?" We decided, "No, that would be too simplistic." However, none of us knew how to approach examining Cion and the concept of meta-fiction, because quite honestly, none of us knew what meta-fiction was.
A quick search into Emory University's Department of English defined meta-fiction as:
[Begin quote]
. . . . Patricia Waugh also provides a comprehensive definition by describing metafiction as "fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality" (2). Metafictional works, she suggests, are those which "explore a theory of writing fiction through the practice of writing fiction" (2). Mark Currie highlights current metafiction's self-critical tendency by depicting it as "a borderline discourse, a kind of writing which places itself on the border between fiction and criticism, which takes the border as its subject" (2). Yet, he too encompasses works that are marginally metafictional by proposing that, "to see the dramatized narrator or novelist as metanarrative devices is to interpret a substantial proportion of fiction as meta-fiction"(4).
Despite the subtle differences between their definitions, most theorists agree that metafiction cannot be classified as a genre nor as the definitive mode of postmodern fiction. They suggest that metafiction display, "a self-reflexivity prompted by the author's awareness of the theory underlying the construction of fictional works," without dividing contemporary metafiction from older works containing similar self-reflective techniques (Waugh 2) . . . .
[End quote]
The Department of English at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan also referenced Waugh's work on self-reflexivity within a postmodern work, such as Cion, and introduced the concept of parody (FJU) as well. Works such as Don Quixote and even Forrest Gump entered into our dialogue (as referenced by the scholars at FJU) as we began to tackle the concept of meta-fiction and Cion.
In analyizing Mda's Toloki, we agreed that he (Toloki) acknowledged his creator, but we didn't believe that the sciolist was Zakes himself. Given the working definition of meta-fiction, as presented by Waugh, and the concept of parody introduced via FJU, we suggested that Zakes sciolist was possibly a construct, a character entity, perhaps a literary persona of Mda, who created Toloki - especially since the sciolist was previously described as having brown skin. Was that Zakes poking fun at his own creation? A tease to pique the minds of the curious? A hint?
We questioned the concepts of literary personas that authors may allow to develop, and we gave consideration to the idea that characters suddenly take on a life of their own. We discussed the commentary of Stephen King and how he has said that sometimes he does not know what a character will do (my loose paraphrase of our discussion) until the moment comes. We believe that just as their are many layers in Cion there are many "levels of being" that the sciolist passes through as we look into this world through Toloki's eyes. Toloki wants and needs to be free. We think he is about to step out, and we are waiting!
We were enjoying our discussion, but we realize that we were only getting started on this idea when we had to report back to our whole group discussion.
Thoughts?
Relevant Links:
Emory
FJU
A quick search into Emory University's Department of English defined meta-fiction as:
[Begin quote]
. . . . Patricia Waugh also provides a comprehensive definition by describing metafiction as "fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality" (2). Metafictional works, she suggests, are those which "explore a theory of writing fiction through the practice of writing fiction" (2). Mark Currie highlights current metafiction's self-critical tendency by depicting it as "a borderline discourse, a kind of writing which places itself on the border between fiction and criticism, which takes the border as its subject" (2). Yet, he too encompasses works that are marginally metafictional by proposing that, "to see the dramatized narrator or novelist as metanarrative devices is to interpret a substantial proportion of fiction as meta-fiction"(4).
Despite the subtle differences between their definitions, most theorists agree that metafiction cannot be classified as a genre nor as the definitive mode of postmodern fiction. They suggest that metafiction display, "a self-reflexivity prompted by the author's awareness of the theory underlying the construction of fictional works," without dividing contemporary metafiction from older works containing similar self-reflective techniques (Waugh 2) . . . .
[End quote]
The Department of English at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan also referenced Waugh's work on self-reflexivity within a postmodern work, such as Cion, and introduced the concept of parody (FJU) as well. Works such as Don Quixote and even Forrest Gump entered into our dialogue (as referenced by the scholars at FJU) as we began to tackle the concept of meta-fiction and Cion.
In analyizing Mda's Toloki, we agreed that he (Toloki) acknowledged his creator, but we didn't believe that the sciolist was Zakes himself. Given the working definition of meta-fiction, as presented by Waugh, and the concept of parody introduced via FJU, we suggested that Zakes sciolist was possibly a construct, a character entity, perhaps a literary persona of Mda, who created Toloki - especially since the sciolist was previously described as having brown skin. Was that Zakes poking fun at his own creation? A tease to pique the minds of the curious? A hint?
We questioned the concepts of literary personas that authors may allow to develop, and we gave consideration to the idea that characters suddenly take on a life of their own. We discussed the commentary of Stephen King and how he has said that sometimes he does not know what a character will do (my loose paraphrase of our discussion) until the moment comes. We believe that just as their are many layers in Cion there are many "levels of being" that the sciolist passes through as we look into this world through Toloki's eyes. Toloki wants and needs to be free. We think he is about to step out, and we are waiting!
We were enjoying our discussion, but we realize that we were only getting started on this idea when we had to report back to our whole group discussion.
Thoughts?
Relevant Links:
Emory
FJU
Dagnabbit. I've used the wrong sign-in again. Glider Island is Cyndi Garnes. Also, I see that I will need to edit my links since they are not clickable. My apologies.
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