Talk:List of metafictional works

Categorizing by type of work
Shouldn't this be organized by type of work? I have started by adding Deathtrap and moving Rosencrantz and Guilderson are Dead" to a section title Stage Plays. wcf Facts are stubborn. Comments?'' 01:52, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, it might be a good idea distinguish between books with tangential metafictional elements and metafiction as a central theme.

Shouldn't Sartor Resartus qualify as metafictional ?

Video games
I'm removing the video games. I haven't seen the games in question, but the description linked doesn't make it clear why they would be considered metafictional. In a sense, any video game is metafictional--the player's experience of playing is crucial to the text--but I don't know how a video game could be specifically metafiction. Would that be, "A video game about playing a video game"? If there is support for the concept of metafictional video games, then perhaps there could be an article for metafictional video games. Thirdreel 01:34, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

-Metal Gear Solid 2 is probably the most famous example. With the story (which plays out more like a movie) the player is chastised for playing too long and the reality of the game falls apart. I do not know if many other games go as far to incorporate metafiction into the story.

-Star Ocean III is a game set in a world which, we happen to discover as the story unravels, comes out to be some kind of MMORPG universe, it's "real" counterpart lying somewhere else, behind some curtain (the main characters themselves are mere NPCs of this "game in a game"). In this real world, poor people are those who do not work, spending most of their days playing in this virtual universe while only a small minority is given the opportunity to work (this being considered a privilege). This clearly points to parallels with the player's actual situation.

- How is Silent Hill metafictional other than featuring a writer as the main character? Zhnigo (talk) 13:21, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

Deconstructive fiction
Over two thirds of the works on this list do not properly qualify as metafiction, but rather as deconstructive literature, a broader category which includes as one of its subsets all metafiction. I notice, to my surprise, that there is no entry yet in the Wikipedia regarding deconstructive fiction. I'll try to knock one out over the weekend.

To qualify as metafiction, an author has to address the reader directly as to what literary device or technique he is using. Thus, Fowles' French Lieutenant's Woman is unquestionably metafiction. Shakespeare's Hamlet (mentioned in the metafiction article) and Cervantes' Don Quixote are examples, among most of the others on this list, of deconstructive literature, or they contain elements of deconstructive literature, but they are not properly metafiction.

DanQuigley 06:28, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Why do these claims not need citation?
Isn't basically the entire list original research? Without some cited reliable outside source assigning a given work to the category of metafiction, the whole thing is little more than the collected opinions of a succession of random editors in the form of a list of unsupported factual claims, is it not? Or is there some rule or policy that excludes such a list article from the normal policies? These questions are independent of the accuracy of the list, or its lack. –KGF0 ( T | C ) 16:43, 16 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Yes, the list is original research. I'm not sure if it is even possible to have stable criteria for this list. Breaking the fourth wall would count as "metafictional", and that can happen anywhere from multiple times to once. Maybe propose it for deletion? Then take it to AfD? Erik (talk &#124; contrib) (ping me) 17:07, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Missing Metafictional Works
There are certain works of metafiction that are missing in the list. Here are some suggestions. Movies: Airplane, Naked Gun, Naked Gun 2½, Naked Gun 33½, Everywhere Everything All at Once, The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie 2, Human Centipede 2, Human Centipede 3, Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Ready Player One, Rango, Seed of Chucky. Web Videos: Alantutorial, Marble Hornets, Dad. I'm sorry if this isn't how I suggest changes. I'm trying my best and I'm really into metafiction so I'm sorry if some of these don't count as metafiction. Thanks. 2600:1700:D150:17F0:793C:C5FA:74FC:30C0 (talk) 22:09, 16 May 2023 (UTC)