Definition of "metafiction" [metafiction]

• Fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Postmodern game playing and the juxtaposing of the supposedly real with the imaginary, are marked aspects of Auster's style; and there are those critics who dismiss him for what is usually termed metafiction, that is, fiction engaged in a dialogue with itself, a story which calls attention to the telling of the story."
• "And as we are brought back out to the stranger and the listener, the I and the You, that sneaky genre twist on metafiction is still at work."
• "Yeah, metafiction is fiction about fiction, and it can pop up in all kinds of ways, from parodies like The Stinky Cheese Man, to books in which the author is a character (Chris Crutcher's The Sledding Hill) to books in which a character KNOWS he or she is a character."