The Research Of Metanarrative In Literature

Metanarrative as a narrative technique which exist in theliterature much earlier than it was as a term into the literarytheoretical field. Metanarrative means narration of narrations that isthe text which narrate itself, so it performs as the self-consciousnessof text. It mainly referring to the the narrator, narrative action andthe narratee. From two angles of both narratology and rhetoric,metanarratives wil be studied as follows.From the narratology perspective to study the characteristicsof narrative works, we emphasis on the analyzing of the narrator andstructure feature of metanarrative works. The narrator, can bedivided in two types, as explicit narrator and implicit narrator, andas identical narrator and different narrator. The structural features oftext is also studies from two ways: the micro structure andmacro-structure, and the macro-structure should be stressed on.From the perspective of rhetoric, the function and self-awareness ofmetanarrative in works are focused on. Referring to the bias of self-referring, it can be divided into three types, those are thenarrator’s self-awareness, the text’s self-awareness and the narratee’self-awareness.When analysising the structure features text, I primarily standfrom the linguistic semiotics view and trying to grasp the specialityof metanarrative text which distinguish itself from the commontext. When analysising the self-awareness of metanarrative, I adaptthe cultural study methods in order to reflect the metanarratives asthe connotation of self-consciousness more clearly.Metanarratives, as a distinctive narrative techniques, can beseen in a variety of literary forms in the post-modern social context,that lead to a special "meta" field in the post-modernist literature.According to the research as follows, we can get a clearerunderstanding this, and also grasp the meaning of it. At present, thiskind of experimental or pioneering novel is in a rapid emergence inChina, according to the analysis in this paper, we may also have aclearer understanding of these novels.