metatextual

Metatextual is an adjective used in literary studies to describe elements that self-consciously acknowledge the status of a text as a constructed artifact. Metatextual features draw attention to the act of writing, the act of reading, or the conditions of interpretation, rather than merely telling a story. The concept is closely related to metafiction and self-reflexivity, but it is often used in a broader sense to include paratextual devices, such as forewords, footnotes, or interjections by a narrator that remind the reader they are reading a text.

The term is employed within narratology and literary criticism to analyze how works manipulate readerly expectations and complicate ideas of authorial authority, realism, and narrative possibility. Notable theorists include Gérard Genette, who developed related concepts such as metalepsis and metanarration, and Linda Hutcheon, who articulates how postmodern works foreground their own status as representations. Metatextual practices appear across genres and periods, from earlier self-referential works to contemporary postmodern fiction.

Common forms include explicit or implicit commentary on language, structure, or genre; frame narratives that interrupt the main plot; metafictional narrators who question their own reliability; or intertextual references that foreground the text’s constructedness. The purpose is not merely to amuse but to invite critical reflection on how texts are made, circulated, and interpreted.

Examples often cited include Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler and Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, both of which invite readers to consider the act of reading as part of the narrative experience.