History of the concept and the term
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 ''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. 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. Others, however, argue that meta-reference is explicit as long as it is clear.Literature
John Fowles begins chapter 13 of his novel ''This ''story'' I am ''telling'' is all ''imagination''. These ''characters'' I create never existed outside my own mind. If I have pretended until now to know my ''characters''' mind and innermost thoughts, it is because I am ''writing'' in ..a ''convention'' universally accepted at the time of my ''story'': that the ''novelist'' stands next to God. mphases added/blockquote>This is an example of explicit meta-reference because the text draws attention to the fact that the novel the recipient is reading is merely a fiction created by the author. It also foregrounds the convention that readers of realist fiction Literary realism is a literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. It originated with the realist art movement that began with ...accept the presence of an all-knowing narrator, and breaks it by allowing the narrator to take centre stage which invites meta-reflections by the recipient. In American comic books published byMarvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ..., the characterDeadpool Deadpool is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist/writer Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in ''New Mutants'' #98 (cover-dated Feb. 1991). Initially, Deadp ...is aware that he is a fictional comic book character. He commonly breaks thefourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ..., 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 ofpsychosis Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior .... 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."Cable and Deadpool" #47.
Film
''The Truman Show ''The Truman Show'' is a 1998 American psychological satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir, produced by Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman, and Adam Schroeder, and written by Niccol. The film stars Jim Carrey as Truma ...'' 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.
Painting
An example of meta-reference in painting is ''Manet's Balcony'' by
René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda .... It comments on another painting, ''The Balcony'' byÉdouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ..., by mimicking both the setting of the balcony as well as the poses of the depicted people, but places them in coffins. Thus, the recipient's attention is drawn to the fact that not only are the people in the painting long dead and only still "alive" in the representation, but arguably also that the artist (Manet A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...) and theimpressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...painting style are just as dead as the portrayed individuals. Furthermore, it is foregrounded that theimpressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...painting style is just a style that may be copied, which further emphasises the fact that both works are only paintings created in a specific way.
See also
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References
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 Winfried Nöth (born September 12, 1944 in Gerolzhofen) is a German linguist and semiotician. After graduating from high school in 1963 in Brunswick, from 1965 to 1969 Nöth studied English, French and Portuguese in Münster, Geneva, Lisbon and ...: 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 Hermann Danuser (born 3 October 1946) is a Swiss-German musicologist. Life Born in Frauenfeld, Danuser studied piano, oboe, musicology, philosophy and German language and literature at the Musikhochschule and the University of Zurich from 1965; ...: 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
External links
List of films that break the fourth wall
The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Harris, Matthew''Metafiction in New Zealand''.Massey University Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or ..., 2011. {{Meta-prefix Drama Narratology Metafictional techniques