Having placed this phenomenon in its historical context Linda Hutcheon uses the insights of various reader-response theories to explore the тАЬparadoxтАЭ created by metafiction: the reader is, at the same time, co-creator of the self-reflexive text and distanced from it because of its very self-reflexiveness. She illustrates her analysis through the works of novelists such as Fowles, Barth, Nabokov, Calvino, Borges, Carpentier, and Aquin. For the paperback edition of this important book a preface has been added which examines developments since first publication. Narcissistic Narrative was selected by Choice as one of the outstanding academic books for 1981тАУ1982.
Linda Hutcheon is Associate Professor of English at McMaster University.