6.3 Metaliterature

Literature about literature

Metaliteratura is writing that reflects on the act of reading or writing. Julio Cortázar's 'Continuidad de los parques' shows a man reading a novel — until the novel's murderer comes to kill him.

Breaking the frame

The story collapses the boundary between fiction and reality: the reader inside the story becomes the victim of the story he reads. Form embodies the theme of creation itself.

The reader's role

Metaliterature often makes readers aware of their own act of reading, questioning where fiction ends and life begins — a fitting close to the theme of la creación literaria.

Key terms

'Continuidad de los parques'

Cortázar — a reader becomes the victim of his novel

metaliteratura

literature that reflects on reading/writing

Breaking the frame

fiction and reality collapse into each other

The reader's role

metafiction makes us aware we are reading

Theme

la creación literaria — how literature is made

Try an AP-style question

Metaliterature is literature that…

1. is written for children
2. only tells history
3. avoids fiction
4. reflects on its own creation