Meta-reference
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2021) |
Meta-reference (or metareference) is a category of
History
While meta-reference as a concept is not a new phenomenon and can be observed in very early works of art and media not tied to specific purposes (e.g. Homer's invocation of the muses at the beginning of the Odyssey in order to deliver the epic better), the term itself is relatively new.[3] Earlier discussions of meta-referential issues often opt for more specific terminology tied to the respective discipline. Notable discussions of meta-reference include, but are not limited to, William H. Gass's[4] and Robert Scholes's[5] exploration of metafiction, Victor Stoichita's examination of early modern meta-painting,[6] and Lionel Abel's[7] investigation of metatheatre. In the context of drama, meta-reference has also become colloquially known as the breaking of the fourth wall. The first study to underscore the problem resulting from the lack of cohesive terminology, as well as the necessity to acknowledge meta-reference as transmedial and trans-generic phenomenon, was published in 2007 by Hauthal et al.[8] Publications by Nöth and Bishara[9] as well as Wolf[10] followed suit, raised similar concerns, included case studies from various media, coined and helped establish the more uniform umbrella term meta-reference as define above.
Examples
While every medium has the potential for meta-reference, some media can transport meta-reference more easily than others. Media that can easily realise its meta-referential potential includes, for instance, literature, painting, and film. Although music can be meta-referential even outside the confines of lyrics, meta-reference in music is much harder to create or detect.[11][12] Music, therefore, would be a less typical medium for the occurrence of meta-reference. Nöth argues in this context that although non-verbal media can be the home of meta-reference, the contained meta-reference can only be implicit because non-verbal media can only show similarities, but never point directly (or explicitly) to meta-referential elements.[13] Others, however, argue that meta-reference is explicit as long as it is clear.
Literature
John Fowles begins chapter 13 of his novel
In American comic books published by Marvel Comics, the character Deadpool is aware that he is a fictional comic book character. He commonly breaks the fourth wall, to humorous effect. To other non-aware characters in the story, Deadpool's self-awareness as a comic book character appears to be a form of psychosis. When other characters question whether Deadpool's real name is even Wade Wilson, he jokes that his true identity depends on which writer the reader prefers.[15]
Film
The Truman Show is a movie that contains a high degree of meta-reference. Truman, the protagonist, is unaware that he is part of a reality TV show, but the audience knows about the artificiality of both Truman's life and, by extension, the movie that is being watched. This is underscored by putting emphasis on the production process of the fictional reality TV show, which makes the audience aware of the same features being used in the movie at the time of watching. Further examples of meta-reference in the movie include spotlights falling from the sky seemingly out of the blue, or a raincloud which is curiously only raining on Truman following him around on Seahaven Beach. Both instances point to the artificiality of Truman's life as well as the film itself.
Other examples include films by Mel Brooks, such as Blazing Saddles, which becomes a story about the production of the film, and Silent Movie is a silent movie about producing a silent movie. Additionally, The Muppet Movie and its sequels frequently showed characters referring to the movie script to see what should happen next.
Painting
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Manet's Balcony by Magritte |
An example of meta-reference in painting is Manet's Balcony by
See also
- Frame story – Story in a nested narration that brackets one or more embedded stories
- Induction – explanatory scene in a play
- Hypostasis – Literary device in metafiction
- Meta- – Productive prefix in English derived from Greek
- Metacomic – Type of comic
- Meta-discussion
- Meta-joke– Humor that alludes to itself
- Metaknowledge – Knowledge about knowledge
- Self-reference – Sentence, idea or formula that refers to itself
- Story within a story – Literary device
- Mise en abyme – literary technique
- Metafiction – Genre of fiction about fiction
- Metatheatre
- Metalepsis – Figure of speech
- Metafilm – Self-reflexive mode of filmmaking
References
- ISBN 978-90-420-2670-4.
- ISBN 978-90-420-2670-4.
- ISBN 978-90-420-2670-4.
- ^ Gass, William (1970). Fiction and the Figures of Life. New York, NY: Knopf.
- .
- ISBN 978-1909400115.
- ^ Abel, Lionel (1963). Metatheatre. A New View of Dramatic Form. New York, NY: Hill & Wang.
- )
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- ISBN 978-90-420-2670-4.
- ISBN 978-3-11-019464-7.
- ISBN 978-90-420-2670-4.
- ISBN 978-0-099-49707-3.
- ^ "Cable and Deadpool" #47.
Further reading
- Metareference across Media: Theory and Case Studies. Dedicated to Walter Bernhart on the Occasion of his Retirement. Wolf, Werner (Ed.), Katharina Bantleon and Jeff Thoss (Collaborators). Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2009.
- Winfried Nöth: Metareference from a Semiotic Perspective / Andreas Mahler: The Case is 'this': Metareference in Magritte and Ashbery / Irina O. Rajewsky: Beyond 'Metanarration': Form-Based Metareference as a Transgeneric and Transmedial Phenomenon / Sonja Klimek: Metalepsis and Its (Anti-)Illusionist Effects in the Arts, Media and Role-Playing Games
- Hermann Danuser: Generic Titles: On Paratextual Metareference in Music / Tobias Janz: “Music about Music”: Metaization and Intertextuality in Beethoven's Prometheus Variations op. 35 / René Michaelsen: Exploring Metareference in Instrumental Music – The Case of Robert Schumann / David Francis Urrows: Phantasmic Metareference: The Pastiche 'Operas' in Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera / Jörg-Peter Mittmann: Intramedial Reference and Metareference in Contemporary Music / Martin Butler: “Please Play This Song on the Radio”: Forms and Functions of Metareference in Popular Music
- Henry Keazor : "L'architecture n'est pas un art rigoureux": Jean Nouvel, Postmodernism and Meta-Architecture / Katharina Bantleon, Jasmin Haselsteiner-Scharner: Of Museums, Beholders, Artworks and Photography: Metareferential Elements in Thomas Struth's Photographic Projects Museum Photographs and Making Time /
- Jean-Marc Limoges: The Gradable Effects of Self-Reflexivity on Aesthetic Illusion in Cinema / Barbara Pfeifer: Novel in/and Film: Transgeneric and Transmedial Metareference in Stranger than Fiction
- Hans Ulrich Seeber: Narrative Fiction and the Fascination with the New Media Gramophone, Photography and Film: Metafictional and Media-Comparative Aspects of H. G. Wells' A Modern Utopia and Beryl Bainbridge's Master Georgie / Daniella Jancsó: Metareference and Intermedial Reference: William Carlos Williams' Poetological Poems
- Ingrid Pfandl-Buchegger, Gudrun Rottensteiner: Metareferentiality in Early Dance: The Jacobean Antimasque / Karin Kukkonen: Textworlds and Metareference in Comics / Doris Mader: Metareference in the Audio-/Radioliterary Soundscape / Fotis Jannidis: Metareference in Computer Games
- Janine Hauthal: When Metadrama Is Turned into Metafilm: A Media-Comparative Approach to Metareference / Andreas Böhn: Quotation of Forms as a Strategy of Metareference / Erika Greber: 'The Media as Such': Meta-Reflection in Russian Futurism – A Case Study of Vladimir Mayakovsky's Poetry, Paintings, Theatre, and Films