List of metafictional texts
Encyclopedia
Metafiction
is a form of fiction
in which the text - either directly or through the characters within - is 'aware' that it is a form of fiction.
This is a partial list of works using various metafictional ideas.
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
is a form of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
in which the text - either directly or through the characters within - is 'aware' that it is a form of fiction.
This is a partial list of works using various metafictional ideas.
Novels, novellas and short stories
- Peter AckroydPeter AckroydPeter Ackroyd CBE is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More he won the Somerset Maugham Award...
, English Music - Richard Adams, The Plague DogsThe Plague DogsThe Plague Dogs is the third novel by Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, about two dogs who escape an animal testing facility and are subsequently pursued by both the government and the media...
- Rabih AlameddineRabih AlameddineRabih Alameddine is a Lebanese-American painter and writer. He was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents . He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left...
, I, the Divine - Felipe AlfauFelipe AlfauFelipe Alfau was a Catalan American novelist and poet. Like his contemporaries Luigi Pirandello and Flann O'Brien, Alfau is considered a forerunner of later postmodern writers such as Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthelme, and Gilbert Sorrentino.Born in Barcelona, Alfau emigrated...
, Locos: A Comedy of Gestures - Martin AmisMartin AmisMartin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
, MoneyMoney (novel)Money: A Suicide Note is a 1984 novel by Martin Amis. Time magazine included the novel in its "100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present".-Plot summary:...
, London FieldsLondon Fields (novel)London Fields is a black comic novel murder mystery by British writer Martin Amis, published in 1989. Regarded by Amis's readership as possibly his strongest novel, the tone gradually shifts from high comedy, interspersed with deep personal introspections, to a dark sense of foreboding and...
, Time's ArrowTime's Arrow (novel)Time's Arrow: or The Nature of the Offence is a novel by Martin Amis. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize .- Plot summary :The novel recounts the life of a German Holocaust doctor in a disorienting reverse chronology...
, The InformationThe Information (novel)The Information is a 1995 novel by British writer Martin Amis. The plot involves two forty-year-old novelists, Gwyn Barry and Richard Tull . Amis has asserted that both characters are based on himself... - Isaac AsimovIsaac AsimovIsaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, Murder at the ABAMurder at the ABAMurder at the ABA is a mystery novel by Isaac Asimov, following the adventures of a writer and amateur detective named Darius Just . While attending a convention of the American Booksellers Association, Just discovers the dead body of a friend and protégé... - Margaret AtwoodMargaret AtwoodMargaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
, The Handmaid's TaleThe Handmaid's TaleThe Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel, a work of science fiction or speculative fiction, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985... - Jane AustenJane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, Northanger AbbeyNorthanger AbbeyNorthanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written approximately during 1798–99... - Paul AusterPaul AusterPaul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
, The New York TrilogyThe New York TrilogyThe New York Trilogy is a series of novels by Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as City of Glass , Ghosts and The Locked Room , it has since been collected into a single volume.- Plot introduction :...
: City of Glass (1985), Ghosts (1986) and The Locked Room (1986) - Nicholson BakerNicholson BakerNicholson Baker is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, he often focuses on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness, and has written about such provocative topics as voyeurism and planned assassination...
, The MezzanineThe MezzanineThe Mezzanine is a first novel by Nicholson Baker about what goes through a man's mind during a modern lunch break.-Plot introduction:... - John BarnesJohn Barnes (author)-Writing:Two of his novels, The Sky So Big and Black and The Duke of Uranium have been reviewed as having content appropriate for a young adult readership, comparing favorably to Robert A. Heinlein's "juvenile" novels...
, One for the Morning GloryOne For the Morning GloryOne For the Morning Glory is a fantasy novel by John Barnes, published 1996. It is a fairy tale where the characters know that they are in a fairy tale. The novel has a humorous tone similar to William Goldman's The Princess Bride — quite different from Barnes' usual science fiction... - Julian BarnesJulian BarnesJulian Patrick Barnes is a contemporary English writer, and winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, for his book The Sense of an Ending...
, Flaubert's ParrotFlaubert's ParrotFlaubert's Parrot is a novel by Julian Barnes that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984 and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize the following year... - John BarthJohn BarthJohn Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...
, ChimeraChimera (John Barth novel)Chimera is a 1972 novel by the American writer John Barth, composed of three loosely connected novellas. The novellas are Dunyazadiad, Perseid and Bellerophoniad, the titles of which eponymously refer to the mythical characters Dunyazad, Perseus and Bellerophon, the last of whom slew the Chimera...
, Coming Soon!!!, The Floating Opera, Lost in the FunhouseLost in the FunhouseLost in the Funhouse is a collection of loosely connected short stories that was originally published by John Barth in 1968. These postmodern stories examine the art of fiction writing, among other things, and seem to undermine the conventional and predictable nature of fiction...
among others - Peter S. BeaglePeter S. BeaglePeter Soyer Beagle is an American fantasist and author of novels, nonfiction, and screenplays. His most notable works include the novels The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place and Tamsin, and the award-winning story "Two Hearts".-Career:Beagle won early recognition from The Scholastic Art &...
, The Last UnicornThe Last UnicornThe Last Unicorn is a fantasy novel written by Peter S. Beagle and published in 1968. It has sold more than five million copies worldwide since its original publication, and has been translated into at least twenty languages.... - Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, WattWatt (novel)Watt was Samuel Beckett's second published novel in English, largely written on the run in the south of France during the Second World War and published by Maurice Girodias's Olympia Press in 1953... - Thomas BernhardThomas BernhardThomas Bernhard was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. Bernhard, whose body of work has been called "the most significant literary achievement since World War II," is widely considered to be one of the most important German-speaking authors of the postwar era.- Life :Thomas Bernhard was...
, Wittgenstein's NephewWittgenstein's NephewWittgenstein’s Nephew is an autobiographical work by Thomas Bernhard, originally published in 1982. It is a recollection of the author's friendship with Paul Wittgenstein, the nephew of Ludwig Wittgenstein and a member of the wealthy Viennese Wittgenstein family... - Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, "The Garden of Forking PathsThe Garden of Forking Paths"The Garden of Forking Paths" is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is the title story in the collection El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan , which was republished in its entirety in Ficciones in 1944...
", "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis TertiusTlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a short story by the 20th century Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published in the Argentine journal Sur, May 1940. The "postscript" dated 1947 is intended to be anachronistic, set seven years in the future...
", "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" among others - William S. BurroughsWilliam S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Naked LunchNaked LunchNaked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order... - Michel ButorMichel Butor-Life and work:Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1947. He has taught in Egypt, Manchester, Salonika, the United States, and Geneva...
, Second Thoughts - Steven BrustSteven BrustSteven Karl Zoltán Brust is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He was a member of the writers' group The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede; he also belongs to the Pre-Joycean...
and collaborators, the Paarfi books, especially Five Hundred Years AfterFive Hundred Years AfterFive Hundred Years After is the second novel in the Khaavren Romances fantasy series by Steven Brust. It is set in the fantasy world of Dragaera. The novel is heavily influenced by the d'Artagnan Romances written by Alexandre Dumas, and Brust considers the series an homage to that author... - A. S. ByattA. S. ByattDame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
, Possession: A RomancePossession: A RomancePossession: A Romance is a 1990 bestselling novel by British writer A. S. Byatt. It is a winner of the Man Booker Prize.Part historical as well as contemporary fiction, the title Possession refers to issues of ownership and independence between lovers, the practice of collecting historically... - James Branch CabellJames Branch CabellJames Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...
, The Cream of the JestThe Cream of the JestThe Cream of the Jest : A Comedy of Evasions is a comical and philosophical novel with possible fantasy elements, by James Branch Cabell, published in 1917. Much of it consists of the historical dreams and philosophical reflections of the main character, the famous writer Felix Kennaston... - Guillermo Cabrera InfanteGuillermo Cabrera InfanteGuillermo Cabrera Infante was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, and critic; in the 1950s he used the pseudonym G. Caín.A one-time supporter of the Castro regime, Cabrera Infante went into exile to London in 1965...
, Tres tristes tigres - Italo CalvinoItalo CalvinoItalo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
, If on a winter's night a travelerIf on a winter's night a travelerIf on a winter's night a traveler is a 1979 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The narrative is about a reader trying to read a book called If on a winter's night a traveler. Every odd-numbered chapter is in the second person, and tells the reader what he is doing in preparation for... - Peter Carey, IllywhackerIllywhackerIllywhacker is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published in 1985, short-listed for the 1985 Booker Prize, and won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and The Age Book of the Year Award...
- Jonathon Carroll, The Land of LaughsThe Land of LaughsThe Land of Laughs is fantasy novel by Jonathan Carroll. It was first published by Viking Press in 1980 and is the author's first novel. The novel was notably reprinted by Orion Books in 2000 as volume 9 of their Fantasy Masterworks series.-Plot summary:...
- Miguel de CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
, Don Quixote - J. M. Coetzee, Slow ManSlow ManSlow Man is a 2005 novel by South African/Australian author J. M. Coetzee, and concerns a man who must learn to adapt after losing a leg in a road accident. The novel has many varied themes, including the nature of care, the relationship between an author and his characters, and man's drive to...
- Douglas Cooper, Amnesia, Delirium
- Julio CortázarJulio CortázarJulio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
, Hopscotch - Douglas CouplandDouglas CouplandDouglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...
, jPodJPodJPod is a novel by Douglas Coupland published by Random House of Canada in 2006. Set in 2005, the book explores the strange and unconventional everyday life of the main character, Ethan Jarlewski, and his team of video game programmers whose last names all begin with the letter 'J'.JPod was... - John CrowleyJohn CrowleyJohn Crowley is an American author of fantasy, science fiction and mainstream fiction. He studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer...
, Little, BigLittle, BigLittle, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament is a modern fantasy novel by John Crowley, published in 1981. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1982.-Plot synopsis:...
, "Novelty", Lord Byron's Novel, The Solitudes (first book of the Ægypt cycleÆgyptÆgypt is a sequence of four novels by John Crowley. The work describes the work and life of Pierce Moffett, who prepares a manuscript for publication even as it prepares him for some as-yet unknown destiny, all set amidst strange and subtle Hermetic manipulations among the Faraway Hills at the...
) - Mark Z. DanielewskiMark Z. DanielewskiMark Z. Danielewski, born March 5, 1966 in New York City, New York, is an American author, best known for his debut novel House of Leaves...
, House of LeavesHouse of LeavesHouse of Leaves is the debut novel by the American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published by Pantheon Books. The novel quickly became a bestseller following its March 7, 2000 release. It was followed by a companion piece, The Whalestoe Letters... - Peter DavidPeter DavidPeter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
, Young JusticeYoung JusticeYoung Justice is a fictional DC Comics superhero team consisting of teenaged heroes. The team first appeared in Young Justice: The Secret , before graduating to their ongoing monthly series...
, Sir Apropos of Nothing - Samuel R. DelanySamuel R. DelanySamuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
, The Einstein IntersectionThe Einstein IntersectionThe Einstein Intersection is a 1967 science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1967 and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1968. Delany's intended title for the book was A Fabulous, Formless Darkness.The novel is purportedly influenced by...
, DhalgrenDhalgrenDhalgren is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. The story begins with a cryptic passage:to wound the autumnal city.So howled out for the world to give him a name.The in-dark answered with wind....
, Return to Nevèrÿon (series)Return to Nevèrÿon (series)Return to Nevèrÿon is a series of eleven “sword and sorcery” stories by Samuel R. Delany, originally published in four volumes during the years 1979-1987... - Philip K. DickPhilip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, VALISVALISVALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God....
, The Man in the High CastleThe Man in the High CastleThe Man in the High Castle is a science fiction alternate history novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It won a Hugo Award in 1963 and has since been translated into many languages.... - Joan DidionJoan DidionJoan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
, DemocracyDemocracy (novel)Democracy, Joan Didion's fourth novel, was published in 1984. Set in Hawaii and Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War, the book tells the story of Inez Victor, wife of U.S... - Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
, Foucault's PendulumFoucault's PendulumFoucault's Pendulum is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later....
, The Island of the Day BeforeThe Island of the Day BeforeThe Island of the Day Before is a 1994 novel by Umberto Eco.It is the story of a 17th century Italian nobleman who is the only survivor of a shipwreck during a fierce storm. He finds himself washed up on an abandoned ship in a harbour through which, he convinces himself, runs the International...
, The Name of the RoseThe Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory... - Dave EggersDave EggersDave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...
, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering GeniusA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering GeniusA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a memoir by Dave Eggers released in 2000. It chronicles his stewardship of younger brother Christopher "Toph" Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents.... - Bret Easton EllisBret Easton EllisBret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...
, Lunar ParkLunar ParkLunar Park is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis with elements of faux autobiography and pastiche. It was released by Knopf on August 16, 2005. It is notable for being the first book written by Ellis to use past tense narrative.-Plot summary:... - Harlan EllisonHarlan EllisonHarlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, "The DeathbirdThe DeathbirdThe Deathbird is a well-known novelette by Harlan Ellison. It won the 1974 Hugo and Locus Poll awards for best novelette. It is written in a style which allows for much examination; it is nonlinear but gradually forms a picture of the situation...
" - Michael EndeMichael EndeMichael Andreas Helmuth Ende was a German author of fantasy and children's literature. He is best known for his epic fantasy work The Neverending Story; other famous works include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver...
, The Neverending StoryThe Neverending StoryThe Neverending Story is a German fantasy novel by Michael Ende, first published in 1979. The standard English translation, by Ralph Manheim, was first published in 1983... - Steve EricksonSteve EricksonStephen Michael Erickson is an American novelist, essayist and film critic. He is the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters's Award in Literature and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation., and is considered an important representative of the Avantpop...
, "Arc d'XArc d'XArc d'X , by Steve Erickson, is an Avantpop novel. It has been translated into Italian, Japanese and other languages.-Plot summary:...
", The Sea Came in at MidnightThe Sea Came in at MidnightThe Sea Came In At Midnight is the sixth novel by American writer Steve Erickson. It has been translated into French, German, Italian, Russian and Japanese... - Raymond FedermanRaymond FedermanRaymond Federman was a French–American novelist and academic, known also for poetry, essays, translations, and criticism. He held positions at the University at Buffalo from 1973 to 1999, when he was appointed Distinguished Emeritus Professor. Federman was a writer in the experimental style, one...
, Twofold Vibration, Smiles on Washington Square, Take It Or Leave It - Jasper FfordeJasper FfordeJasper Fforde is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and begun two more independent series: The Last Dragonslayer...
, The Eyre AffairThe Eyre AffairThe Eyre Affair is the first published novel by English author Jasper Fforde, released by Hodder and Stoughton in 2001. It takes place in alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Plot summary:In a parallel...
, Lost in a Good BookLost in a Good BookLost in a Good Book is an alternate history, fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde. It won the IMBA 2004 Dilys Award.-Plot introduction:It is the second book by Jasper Fforde and the sequel to the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next in The Eyre Affair...
, The Well of Lost PlotsThe Well of Lost PlotsThe Well of Lost Plots is the third book by Jasper Fforde and the continuation of the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book...
, Something RottenSomething RottenSomething Rotten is the fourthbook in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. It continues the story some two years after the point where The Well of Lost Plots leaves off.-Plot introduction:...
, The Big Over EasyThe Big Over EasyThe Big Over Easy is a novel written by Jasper Fforde and published in 2005. It features Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant, Sergeant Mary Mary....
, The Fourth BearThe Fourth BearThe Fourth Bear is a mystery/fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde published in July 2006. It is Jasper Fforde's sixth novel, and the second in the Nursery Crimes series... - John FowlesJohn FowlesJohn Robert Fowles was an English novelist and essayist. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Fowles among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Birth and family:...
, The French Lieutenant's WomanThe French Lieutenant's WomanThe French Lieutenant’s Woman , by John Fowles, is a period novel inspired by the 1823 novel Ourika, by Claire de Duras, which Fowles translated into English in 1977... - Jonathan Safran FoerJonathan Safran FoerJonathan Safran Foer is an American author best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...
, Everything Is IlluminatedEverything Is IlluminatedEverything Is Illuminated is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film by the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005.-Plot summary:... - Cornelia FunkeCornelia FunkeCornelia Funke is a multiple award-winning German author of children's fiction. She was born on 10 December 1958, in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia. Funke is best known for her Inkworld trilogy, with the English translation of the third book, Inkdeath, released on 6 October 2008. Many of her...
, Inkheart trilogy - Jostein GaarderJostein GaarderJostein Gaarder /ˈju:staɪn ˈgɔːrdər/ is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and children's books. Gaarder often writes from the perspective of children, exploring their sense of wonder about the world. He often uses metafiction in his works, writing stories within...
, Sophie's WorldSophie's WorldSophie's World is a novel by Jostein Gaarder, published in 1991. It was originally written in Norwegian, but has since been translated into English and many other languages. It sold more than 30 million copies and is one of the most successful Norwegian novels outside of Norway... - John Gardner, October Light, GrendelGrendel (novel)Grendel is a 1971 parallel novel by American author John Gardner. It is a retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf from the perspective of the antagonist, Grendel. The novel deals with finding meaning in the world, the power of literature and myth, and the nature of good and evil.Grendel...
- William H. GassWilliam H. GassWilliam Howard Gass is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, and former philosophy professor. He has written two novels, three collections of short stories, a collection of novellas, and seven volumes of essays, three of which have won National Book Critics Circle Award...
, The Tunnel - André GideAndré GideAndré Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
, The CounterfeitersThe Counterfeiters (novel)The Counterfeiters is a 1925 novel by French author André Gide, first published in Nouvelle Revue Française... - William GoldmanWilliam GoldmanWilliam Goldman is an American novelist, playwright, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.-Early life and education:...
, The Princess BrideThe Princess BrideThe Princess Bride is a 1973 fantasy novel written by William Goldman. It was originally published in the United States by Harcourt Brace, while in the UK it is/was published by Bloomsbury Publishing.... - Alasdair GrayAlasdair GrayAlasdair Gray is a Scottish writer and artist. His most acclaimed work is his first novel Lanark, published in 1981 and written over a period of almost 30 years...
, LanarkLanark (book)Lanark, subtitled A Life in Four Books, is the first novel of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray. Written over a period of almost thirty years, it combines realist and dystopian fantasy depictions of his home city of Glasgow.... - Robert GrudinRobert GrudinRobert Grudin is an American writer and philosopher.-Life:Grudin graduated from Harvard, and earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley in 1969. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1992-1993. Until 1998 he was a professor of English at the University...
, Book: A NovelBook – A NovelBook: A Novel is a metafictional novel by Robert Grudin.-Plot:The story follows English professor Adam Snell as he realizes that someone is trying to kill both him and his book, Sovrana Sostrata, a book about truth... - Steven HallSteven HallSteven Hall is a British author. He has written one novel, produced a number of plays, music videos, concrete prose/conceptual art pieces, and short stories....
, The Raw Shark TextsThe Raw Shark TextsThe Raw Shark Texts is the debut novel by author Steven Hall, released in 2007. The book was released by Canongate Books in the US and the UK and published by HarperCollins in Canada... - Larry HeinemannLarry HeinemannLarry Heinemann is an American novelist born and raised in Chicago. His body of work—three novels and a memoir—is primarily concerned with the Vietnam War. Heinemann served a combat tour as a conscripted draftee in Viet Nam from 1967 to 1968 with the 25th Infantry Division, and has described...
, Paco's Story - Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, The Number of the BeastThe Number of the Beast (novel)The Number of the Beast is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1980. The first edition featured a cover and interior illustrations by Richard M. Powers...
and Glory RoadGlory RoadGlory Road is a fantasy novel by Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and published in hardcover later the same year...
, at least. - Douglas HofstadterDouglas HofstadterDouglas Richard Hofstadter is an American academic whose research focuses on consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics...
, dialogues in Gödel, Escher, BachGödel, Escher, BachGödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is a book by Douglas Hofstadter, described by his publishing company as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".... - James HoggJames HoggJames Hogg was a Scottish poet and novelist who wrote in both Scots and English.-Early life:James Hogg was born in a small farm near Ettrick, Scotland in 1770 and was baptized there on 9 December, his actual date of birth having never been recorded...
, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified SinnerThe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified SinnerThe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, is a novel that was written by the Scottish author James Hogg and published anonymously in... - Marek S. Huberath, Gniazdo Światów (Nest of Worlds)
- Rhys HughesRhys HughesRhys Henry Hughes , is a Welsh writer and essayist.Born in Cardiff, Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, which include Italo Calvino, Milorad Pavić, Jorge Luis Borges, Stanisław Lem, Flann O'Brien, Felipe Alfau, Donald Barthelme and Jack Vance...
, Nowhere Near Milk Wood, The Postmodern Mariner, The Less Lonely Planet - B S Johnson, Christie Malry's Own Double-EntryChristie Malry's Own Double-EntryChristie Malry's Own Double-Entry is the penultimate novel by the late British avant-garde novelist B. S. Johnson. It is the metafictional account of a disaffected young man, Christie Malry, who applies the principles of double-entry bookkeeping to his own life, "crediting" himself against society...
- Diana Wynne JonesDiana Wynne JonesDiana Wynne Jones was a British writer, principally of fantasy novels for children and adults, as well as a small amount of non-fiction...
, Fire and HemlockFire and HemlockFire and Hemlock is a modern fantasy by British author Diana Wynne Jones based largely on the Scottish ballads "Tam Lin" and "Thomas the Rhymer."... - Stephen KingStephen KingStephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, The Dark TowerThe Dark Tower (series)The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...
, Misery, The Dark HalfThe Dark HalfThe Dark Half is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1989. Publishers Weekly listed The Dark Half as the second best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger. It was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1993.Stephen King wrote several books under a...
, Bag of BonesBag of BonesBag of Bones is a 1998 novel by Stephen King. It focuses on an author who suffers severe writer's block and delusions at an isolated lake house four years after the death of his wife... - Michael Muhammad KnightMichael Muhammad KnightMichael Muhammad Knight is an American Muslim novelist, journalist, and performance artist. His writings are popular among American Muslim youth...
, Osama Van Halen - Milan KunderaMilan KunderaMilan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...
, The Book of Laughter and ForgettingThe Book of Laughter and ForgettingThe Book of Laughter and Forgetting is a novel by Milan Kundera, published in 1979. It is composed of seven separate narratives united by some common themes. The book considers the nature of forgetting as it occurs in history, politics and life in general... - Doris LessingDoris LessingDoris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
, The Golden NotebookThe Golden NotebookThe Golden Notebook is a 1962 novel by Doris Lessing. This book, as well as the couple that followed it, enters the realm of what Margaret Drabble in The Oxford Companion to English Literature has called Lessing's "inner space fiction", her work that explores mental and societal breakdown... - Penelope LivelyPenelope LivelyPenelope Lively CBE, FRSL is a prolific, popular and critically acclaimed author of fiction for both children and adults. She has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize, winning once for Moon Tiger in 1987.-Personal:...
, Moon TigerMoon TigerMoon Tiger is a 1987 novel by Penelope Lively which spans the time before, during and after World War II. The novel won the 1987 Booker Prize . It is written from multiple points of view and moves backward and forward through time... - David LodgeDavid Lodge (author)David John Lodge CBE, is an English author.In his novels, Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular. He was brought up Catholic and has described himself as an "agnostic Catholic". Many of his characters are Catholic and their Catholicism is a major theme...
, Therapy, Nice WorkNice WorkNice Work is a novel by British author David Lodge. It won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1988 and was also shortlisted for the Booker prize. In 1989 it was made into a four-part BBC television series directed by Christopher Menaul and starring Warren Clarke and Haydn Gwynne... - Dimitris LyacosDimitris LyacosDimitris Lyacos is a contemporary Greek poet and playwright. He was born and raised in Athens where he studied Law. From 1988-1991 he lived in Venice, then moved to London, studied philosophy at University College London and stayed there for thirteen years...
, Nyctivoe - Steve Lyons, Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
Virgin New AdventuresVirgin New AdventuresThe Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
:ConundrumConundrum (Doctor Who)Conundrum is an original novel written by Steve Lyons and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Lyons, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #208... - Barry N. MalzbergBarry N. MalzbergBarry Nathaniel Malzberg is an American writer and editor, most often of science fiction and fantasy.-Overview:Initially in his post-graduate work Malzberg sought to establish himself as a playwright as well as a prose-fiction writer. His first two published novels were issed by Olympia Press...
, Galaxies, Herovit's World - Yann Martell, Life of PiLife of PiLife of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...
- Carole MasoCarole MasoCarole Maso is a contemporary American novelist and essayist, known for her experimental, poetic and fragmentary narratives often called postmodern. She received a B.A. in English from Vassar College in 1977. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, an NEA fellowship, and...
, The Art Lover - Ian McEwanIan McEwanIan Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....
, AtonementAtonement (novel)Atonement is a 2001 novel by British author Ian McEwan.On a fateful day, a young girl makes a terrible mistake that has life-changing effects for many people... - David MitchellDavid Mitchell (author)David Stephen Mitchell is an English novelist. He has written five novels, two of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.- Biography :...
, Cloud Atlas - Spike MilliganSpike MilliganTerence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
, PuckoonPuckoonPuckoon is a comic novel by Spike Milligan, first published in 1963. It is his first full-length novel, and only major fictional work. Set in 1924, it details the troubles brought to the fictional Irish village of Puckoon by the Partition of Ireland: the new border, due to the incompetence of the... - Walter MoersWalter MoersWalter Moers is one of the best-known and commercially most successful German comic creators and authors.-Life and work:...
, The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear, Ensel und Kretel, The City of Dreaming BooksThe City of Dreaming BooksThe City of Dreaming Books is the fourth novel in the Zamonia series written and illustrated by German author Walter Moers, but the third to be translated into English by John Brownjohn... - Michael MoorcockMichael MoorcockMichael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
, The Second Ether sequence (Blood, Fabulous Harbours & The War Amongst The Angels) - Ethan MorddenEthan MorddenEthan Mordden is an American author.-Biography:Mordden was raised in Pennsylvania, in Venice, Italy, and on Long Island, and is a graduate of Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York, and the University of Pennsylvania...
, The Buddies Cycle - Toni MorrisonToni MorrisonToni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
, JazzJazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th... - Haruki MurakamiHaruki Murakamiis a Japanese writer and translator. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered him critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Prize and Jerusalem Prize among others.He is considered an important figure in postmodern literature...
, Kafka on the ShoreKafka on the Shoreis a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. John Updike described it as a "real page-turner, as well as an insistently metaphysical mind-bender"... - Vladimir NabokovVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
, The GiftThe Gift (Nabokov book)The Gift is Vladimir Nabokov's final Russian novel, and is considered to be his farewell to the world he was leaving behind. Nabokov wrote it between 1935 and 1937 while living in Berlin, and it was published in serial form under his nom de plume, Vladimir Sirin.The Gift's fourth chapter, a...
, Pale FirePale FirePale Fire is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional John Shade, with a foreword and lengthy commentary by a neighbor and academic colleague of the poet. Together these elements form a narrative in which both authors are...
, Look at the Harlequins!Look at the Harlequins!Look at the Harlequins! is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1974. The work was Nabokov's final published novel before his death in 1977.-Plot summary:... - Flann O'BrienFlann O'BrienBrian O'Nolan was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman and An Béal Bocht and many satirical columns in The Irish Times Brian O'Nolan (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966) was...
, At Swim-Two-BirdsAt Swim-Two-BirdsAt Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction.... - Michael OndaatjeMichael OndaatjePhilip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
, Running in the FamilyRunning in the Family (memoir)Running in the Family is a fictionalized memoir, written in post-modern style involving aspects of magic realism, by Michael Ondaatje. It deals with his return to his native island of Sri Lanka, also called Ceylon, in the late 1970s.... - Juan Carlos OnettiJuan Carlos OnettiJuan Carlos Onetti was an Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories.A high school drop-out, Onetti's first novel, El pozo, published in 1939, met with his close friends' immediate acclaim, as well as from some writers and journalists of his time...
, El Pozo - Chuck PalahniukChuck PalahniukCharles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter...
, Fight ClubFight Club (novel)Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, he finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups...
, DiaryDiary (novel)Diary is a 2003 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The book is written like a diary, its writer/narrator/main character is Misty Wilmot, a once-promising young artist currently working as a waitress in a hotel, although it never actually states who the narrarator is, it's safe to assume that it is Misty. ...
, Haunted - Kenneth PatchenKenneth PatchenKenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. Though he denied any direct connection, Patchen's work and ideas regarding the role of artists paralleled those of the Dadaists, the Beats, and Surrealists...
, The Journal of Albion Moonlight - Milorad PavićMilorad Pavic (writer)Milorad Pavić was a Serbian poet, prose writer, translator, and literary historian. He was also a candidate for Nobel Prize in Literature....
's novels. - Daniel Pellizzari, Dedo Negro Com Unha
- Arturo Pérez-ReverteArturo Pérez-ReverteArturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez is a Spanish novelist and journalist. He worked as a war correspondent for twenty-one years . His first novel, El húsar, set in the Napoleonic Wars, was released in 1986. He is well known outside Spain for his "Alatriste" series of novels...
, The Club DumasThe Club DumasThe Club Dumas is a 1993 novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The book is set in a world of antiquarian booksellers echoing his previous work, The Flanders Panel.... - Salvador PlascenciaSalvador PlascenciaSalvador Plascencia is an American writer, born 1976 in Guadalajara, Mexico.The Plascencia family eventually settled near Los Angeles in the city of El Monte when he was eight years old. Plascencia holds a B.A. in English from Whittier College and an MFA in fiction from Syracuse University...
, The People of PaperThe People of PaperThe People of Paper is the debut novel of Salvador Plascencia. It was first published as a part of the Rectangulars line of McSweeney's Books. In form the novel owes a debt to a wide variety of experimental fiction from the magical realism of Latin American writers, to the Beat writings of William S... - Robert RankinRobert RankinRobert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British humorous novelist. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999, by which time his previous eighteen books had sold around one million copies...
's novels - Alain Robbe-GrilletAlain Robbe-GrilletAlain Robbe-Grillet , was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice...
, La JalousieLa JalousieLa Jalousie is a 1957 novel by Alain Robbe-Grillet. The title of its English editions is Jealousy, but this fails to capture the ambiguity of the French title: "la jalousie" can be translated as "jealousy", but also as "the jalousie window"...
, La maison de rendez-vous - Philip RothPhilip RothPhilip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...
, Operation ShylockOperation ShylockOperation Shylock: A Confession is novelist Philip Roth's 19th book and was published in 1993.-Summary:The novel follows narrator "Philip Roth" on a journey to Israel, where he attends the trial of accused war criminal John Demjanjuk and becomes involved in an intelligence mission—the "Operation... - Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of StoriesHaroun and the Sea of StoriesHaroun and the Sea of Stories is a 1992 children's book by Salman Rushdie. It was Rushdie's first novel after The Satanic Verses. It is a phantasmagorical story that begins in a city so old and ruinous that it has forgotten its name....
- Douglas RushkoffDouglas RushkoffDouglas Rushkoff is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture, and his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems.Rushkoff is most frequently regarded as a media...
, Exit Strategy - José Carlos SomozaJosé Carlos SomozaJosé Carlos Somoza is a Spanish author born on November 13, 1959 in Havana, Cuba. In 1960 his family moved to Spain after being exiled for political reasons...
, The Athenian MurdersThe Athenian MurdersThe Athenian Murders is a novel written by Spanish author José Carlos Somoza. Originally published in Spain under the title La caverna de las ideas in 2000, it was translated into English in 2002 by Sonia Soto... - José SaramagoJosé SaramagoJosé de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
, BlindnessBlindness (novel)Blindness is a novel by Portuguese author José Saramago. It was originally published in Portuguese and then translated into English. It is one of his most famous novels, along with The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Baltasar and Blimunda....
, The CaveThe Cave (novel)The Cave is a novel by Portuguese author José Saramago. It was published in Portuguese in 2000 and in English in 2002.-Plot introduction:The story concerns an elderly potter named Cipriano Algor, his daughter Marta, and his son-in-law Marçal...
, The DoubleThe Double (novel)The Double is a 2001 novel by Portuguese author José Saramago.-Plot summary:Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced high school history teacher who spends his nights reading about Mesopotamian civilizations. One day, at a colleague's suggestion, Tertuliano rents a movie in which he sees a man that... - Robert SheckleyRobert SheckleyRobert Sheckley was a Hugo- and Nebula-nominated American author. First published in the science fiction magazines of the 1950s, his numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and broadly comical.Sheckley was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and...
, OptionsOptions (book)Options is a 1975 absurdist science fiction novel by Robert Sheckley, published in paperback by Pyramid Books. The first British edition appeared in 1977, and a French translation was published in 1979.... - Iain SinclairIain SinclairIain Sinclair FRSL is a British writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, most recently within the influences of psychogeography.-Life and work:...
, Landor's Tower - Dan Sleigh, Islands
- Lemony SnicketLemony SnicketLemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
(Daniel HandlerDaniel HandlerDaniel Handler is an American author, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for his work under the pen name Lemony Snicket.-Personal life:...
), A Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
(13 book series) - Gilbert SorrentinoGilbert SorrentinoGilbert Sorrentino was an American novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and editor.In over twenty-five works of fiction and poetry, Sorrentino explored the comic and formal possibilities of language and literature...
, Mulligan StewMulligan Stew (novel)Mulligan Stew is a novel by Gilbert Sorrentino. It was first published in 1979 by Grove Press.-Release details:* 1979, USA, Grove Press ISBN 0-394-50717-7, Pub date 26 May 1979, Hardcover, First edition.... - Laurence SterneLaurence SterneLaurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
, Tristram Shandy - Peter StraubPeter StraubPeter Francis Straub is an American author and poet, most famous for his work in the horror genre. His horror fiction has received numerous literary honors such as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award, placing him among the most-honored horror authors in...
, In the Night Room - Jonathan StroudJonathan StroudJonathan Anthony Stroud is an author of fantasy books, mainly for children and young adults.-Biography:Born in 1970 in Bedford, England, Stroud began to write stories at a very young age. He grew up in St Albans where he enjoyed reading books, drawing pictures, and writing stories...
, The Bartimaeus Trilogy - Janet TashjianJanet TashjianJanet Tashjian is an American author who writes books targeted at young adults. She is married and has a son.-Works:* 1997: Tru Confessions...
, The Gospel According to LarryThe Gospel According to LarryThe Gospel According to Larry is a "coming of age" political, romantic teen novel by Janet Tashjian that explores anti-consumerism. The introduction of the book is written from a point of view that makes it seem as though Josh Swensen is real and Janet Tashjian is simply the one who edited and...
and Vote for LarryVote for LarryVote for Larry is a comedic political fictional romantic novel by Janet Tashjian. The book is the sequel to The Gospel According to Larry, and stems around the United States presidential election in 2004.-Premise:... - J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, Leaf by NiggleLeaf by Niggle"Leaf by Niggle" is a short story written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1938–39 and first published in the Dublin Review in January 1945. It can be found, most notably, in Tolkien's book titled Tree and Leaf, and in other places... - Roderick TownleyRoderick TownleyRoderick Townley is an American author of juvenile, young adult, and adult books, including books of poetry, nonfiction, and literary criticism. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and was for many years a poet and fiction writer, and for a time lived in New York City and...
, The Great Good Thing - Terry PratchettTerry PratchettSir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
, several of the DiscworldDiscworldDiscworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated RodentsThe Amazing Maurice and his Educated RodentsThe Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is the 28th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, published in 2001. It was the first Discworld book to be aimed at the younger market; this was followed by The Wee Free Men in 2003... - Aritha van HerkAritha Van HerkAritha van Herk is a Canadian writer, critic, editor, and university professor.She was born in Wetaskiwin, Alberta . Her parents and elder siblings immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands before she was born. She grew up in a bilingual home, speaking English and Dutch. In 1974, she married...
, Restlessness - Miguel de UnamunoMiguel de UnamunoMiguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.-Biography:...
, NieblaNiebla (novel)Mist is a nivola written by Miguel de Unamuno and published in 1914.-Plot summary:The plot revolves around the character of Augusto, a wealthy, intellectual and introverted young man. He falls in love with a girl as she walks past him on the street, called Eugenia, and sets about trying to court... - Jeff VandermeerJeff VanderMeerJeffrey Scott VanderMeer is an American writer, editor and publisher.He is best known for his contributions to the New Weird and his stories about the city of Ambergris, in books like City of Saints and Madmen.-Biography:...
, City of Saints and MadmenCity of Saints and MadmenCity of Saints and Madmen: The Book of Ambergris is the title of a collection of fantasy short stories by American writer Jeff VanderMeer, set in the fictional metropolis of Ambergris... - Gore VidalGore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
, Myra BreckinridgeMyra BreckinridgeMyra Breckinridge is a 1968 satirical novel by Gore Vidal written in the form of a diary. It was made into a movie in 1970. Described by the critic Dennis Altman as "part of a major cultural assault on the assumed norms of gender and sexuality which swept the western world in the late 1960s and... - David Foster WallaceDavid Foster WallaceDavid Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
, Infinite JestInfinite JestInfinite Jest is a 1996 novel by David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America, and touches on tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment,...
, Brief Interviews with Hideous MenBrief Interviews with Hideous MenBrief Interviews with Hideous Men is a collection of 23 short stories by David Foster Wallace. Several of the stories are entitled "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" and are presented as transcripts of interviews with male subjects...
The Broom of the SystemThe Broom of the SystemThe Broom of the System is the first novel by the American writer David Foster Wallace, published in 1987.-Background:Wallace stated that the initial idea for the novel sprang from a remark made by an old girlfriend. According to Wallace, she said "she would rather be a character in a piece of... - H. G. WellsH. G. WellsHerbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, Tono-BungayTono-BungayTono-Bungay , by H. G. Wells, is a realist semi-autobiographical novel. It is narrated by George Ponderevo, a science student who is drafted in to help with the promotion of Tono-Bungay, a harmful stimulant disguised as a miraculous cure-all, the creation of his ambitious uncle Edward... - Colin WilsonColin WilsonColin Henry Wilson is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism.- Early biography:Born and...
, The Personality Surgeon - Robert Anton WilsonRobert Anton WilsonRobert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
and Robert SheaRobert SheaRobert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In...
, the Illuminatus! trilogyThe Illuminatus! TrilogyThe Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both... - Jeanette WintersonJeanette WintersonJeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...
, Sexing the CherrySexing the CherrySexing the Cherry is a novel by Jeanette Winterson.Set in 17th century London, Sexing the Cherry is about the journeys of a mother, known as The Dog Woman, and her protégé, Jordan...
, The Powerbook, 'Gut Symmetries' - Gene WolfeGene WolfeGene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
, The Fifth Head of CerberusThe Fifth Head of CerberusThe Fifth Head of Cerberus is the title of both a novella and a single-volume collection of three novellas, written by American science fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe, both published in 1972.-Explanation of the novel's title:...
, The Book of the New SunThe Book of the New SunThe Book of the New Sun is a novel in four parts written by science fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe. It chronicles the journey and ascent to power of Severian, a disgraced journeyman torturer who rises to the position of Autarch, the one ruler of the free world...
"The Last Thrilling Wonder Story" among others - Virginia WoolfVirginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Orlando: A BiographyOrlando: A BiographyOrlando: A Biography is an influential novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. A semi-biographical novel based in part on the life of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West, it is generally considered one of Woolf's most accessible novels... - Ronald WrightRonald WrightRonald Wright is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times...
, A Scientific Romance - Ryukishi07Ryukishi07is the pen name of a Japanese man originally from Chiba Prefecture who is well known as the original creator for the idea of the visual novel series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Umineko no Naku Koro ni. He is the representative member of the group 07th Expansion...
, Umineko no Naku Koro niUmineko no Naku Koro niis a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The first game in the series, Legend of the Golden Witch, was first released at Comiket 72 on August 17, 2007 playable on the PC; the game sold out in thirty minutes...
, Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru
Animated short films
- Chuck JonesChuck JonesCharles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
, Duck AmuckDuck AmuckDuck Amuck is a surreal animated cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons. The short was released in early 1953 by The Vitaphone Corporation, the short subject division of Warner Bros. Pictures, as part of the Merrie Melodies series...
(1953) and (Rabbit RampageRabbit RampageRabbit Rampage is a 1955 Bugs Bunny animated cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, which originally debuted on June 11, 1955. It is a spiritual successor to Duck Amuck, in which Daffy Duck was teased by an off-screen animator, revealed at the end to be Bugs Bunny...
) (1955).
Stage plays
- Francis Beaumon, The Knight of the Burning PestleThe Knight of the Burning PestleThe Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play by Francis Beaumont, first performed in 1607 and first published in a quarto in 1613. It is notable as the first whole parody play in English...
- Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, Waiting for GodotWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
and EndgameEndgame (play)Endgame, by Samuel Beckett, is a one-act play with four characters, written in a style associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. It was originally written in French ; as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English. The play was first performed in a French-language production at the... - Joseph HellerJoseph HellerJoseph Heller was a US satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His best known work is Catch-22, a novel about US servicemen during World War II...
, We Bombed in New Haven - Daniel MacIvorDaniel MacIvorDaniel MacIvor is a Canadian actor, playwright, theatre director and film director. He was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and educated at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and then at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario....
, Never Swim Alone and This Is A Play - Arthur L. KopitArthur L. KopitArthur Lee Kopit is an American playwright. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a three-time Tony Award nominee: Best Play, Indians, 1970; Best Play, Wings, 1979; and Best Book of a Musical, for Nine, 1982...
, End of the World With Symposium to Follow - Thomas KydThomas KydThomas Kyd was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama....
, The Spanish TragedyThe Spanish TragedyThe Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent... - Ira LevinIra LevinIra Levin was an American author, dramatist and songwriter.-Professional life:Levin attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa...
, DeathtrapDeathtrap (play)Deathtrap is a play by Ira Levin in 1978 which encompasses many plot twists and is essentially a play within a play. It is a play in two acts with one set and five characters. It holds the record for the longest running comedy-thriller on Broadway and was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best... - Dimitris LyacosDimitris LyacosDimitris Lyacos is a contemporary Greek poet and playwright. He was born and raised in Athens where he studied Law. From 1988-1991 he lived in Venice, then moved to London, studied philosophy at University College London and stayed there for thirteen years...
, Nyctivoe - Steve MartinSteve MartinStephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
, Picasso at the Lapin AgilePicasso at the Lapin AgilePicasso at the Lapin Agile is a play written by Steve Martin in 1993. It features the characters of Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso, who meet at a bar called the Lapin Agile in Montmartre, Paris... - Luigi PirandelloLuigi PirandelloLuigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
, Six Characters in Search of an AuthorSix Characters in Search of an AuthorSix Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much... - William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
,HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta... - Tom StoppardTom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are DeadRosencrantz & Guildenstern Are DeadRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern... - Peter WeissPeter WeissPeter Ulrich Weiss was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays Marat/Sade and The Investigation and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance....
, Marat/SadeMarat/SadeThe Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade , almost invariably shortened to Marat/Sade, is a 1963 play by Peter Weiss...
(The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of The Marquis de Sade) - Thornton WilderThornton WilderThornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
, The Skin of Our TeethThe Skin of Our TeethThe Skin of Our Teeth is a play by Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942 at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1942... - Doug WrightDoug WrightDoug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.-Early years:Wright was born in Dallas, Texas...
, I Am My Own WifeI Am My Own WifeI Am My Own Wife is a play by Doug Wright based on his conversations with German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The one-man play premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. It opened on Broadway later that year. The play was developed with Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic... - Federico García LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
, Play Without a Title / Untitled PlayPlay Without a Title (Lorca)Play Without a Title, or Untitled Play , is an unfinished experimental play by the Spanish twentieth-century modernist playwright Federico García Lorca...
(1935)
Films
- Keith Allen and Peter Richardson's Comic StripThe Comic StripThe Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents.... The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and...
film Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous BreakdownDetectives on the Edge of a Nervous BreakdownDetectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown is a short comedy film made by The Comic Strip for the BBC, first broadcast in the UK in 1993.... - Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's The Purple Rose of CairoThe Purple Rose of CairoThe Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin, and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real... - Robert AltmanRobert AltmanRobert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's The PlayerThe PlayerThe Player is a 1992 American satirical film directed by Robert Altman from a screenplay by Michael Tolkin based on his own 1988 novel of the same name.... - Steve BendelackSteve BendelackSteve Bendelack is a British film and television director, who has worked primarily on a range of highly-acclaimed comedy programmes.Originally an assistant to Peter Fluck and Roger Law on satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image, Bendelack went on to direct the show in later years...
's The League of Gentlemen's ApocalypseThe League of Gentlemen's ApocalypseThe League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is a feature film spin-off of the popular British television comedy series The League of Gentlemen. Starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, the film was written by the cast with Jeremy Dyson, and directed by Steve Bendelack... - Ingmar BergmanIngmar BergmanErnst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's PersonaPersona (film)Persona is a film by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, released in 1966, and starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann. Bergman held this film to be one of his most important; in his book Images, he writes: "Today I feel that in Persona—and later in Cries and Whispers—I had gone as far as I could go... - Wyllis CooperWyllis CooperWyllis Oswald Cooper was an American writer and producer.He is best remembered for creating and writing the old time radio programs Lights Out and Quiet, Please -Biography:...
's Quiet, PleaseQuiet, PleaseQuiet, Please! was a radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. Ernest Chappell was the show's announcer and lead actor. Quiet, Please! debuted June 8, 1947 on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and its last episode was broadcast June 25, 1949, on...
scripts - David CronenbergDavid CronenbergDavid Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
's VideodromeVideodromeVideodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and singer Deborah Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small cable station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring...
, Naked LunchNaked Lunch (film)Naked Lunch is the 1991 Canadian/British/Japanese film adaptation, directed by David Cronenberg, of William S. Burroughs' novel of the same name...
and eXistenZEXistenZeXistenZ is a 1999 body horror/science fiction film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law.... - Federico FelliniFederico FelliniFederico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
's 8½8½8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director... - David FincherDavid FincherDavid Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
's Fight ClubFight Club (film)Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job... - Marc ForsterMarc ForsterMarc Forster is a German-Swiss filmmaker and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the films Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, The Kite Runner, and Quantum of Solace.- Life and career :...
's Stranger Than Fiction - Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's Breathless, and many of his other films of the 1960s - Peter GreenawayPeter GreenawayPeter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
's The Baby of MâconThe Baby of MâconThe Baby of Mâcon is a 1993 film written and directed by Peter Greenaway starring Ralph Fiennes, Julia Ormond and Philip Stone.-Plot:A town cursed with barren women and famine is saved by a miracle birth to an old, ugly woman: the Mother. Immediately afterwards, the old woman's Daughter claims to... - Kirt Gunn's Lovely By SurpriseLovely By SurpriseLovely By Surprise is a 2007 film directed by Kirt Gunn. It stars Carrie Preston, Michael Chernus, Austin Pendleton and Reg Rogers.- Synopsis of plot :...
- Michael HanekeMichael HanekeMichael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
's Funny Games - Charlie KaufmanCharlie KaufmanCharles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
's screenplay for AdaptationAdaptationAn adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation.... - Buster KeatonBuster KeatonJoseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
's Sherlock Jr. - David LynchDavid LynchDavid Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's Inland EmpireInland Empire (film)Inland Empire, sometimes styled as INLAND EMPIRE, is a 2006 mystery film written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2006... - John McTiernanJohn McTiernanJohn Campbell McTiernan, Jr. is an American film director and producer, best known for his action films and most identifiable with the three films he directed back-to-back: Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October, along with later movies such as Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a...
's Last Action HeroLast Action HeroLast Action Hero is a 1993 American action-comedy-fantasy film directed and produced by John McTiernan. It is a satire of the action genre and its clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film.... - Roman PolanskiRoman PolanskiRoman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
's What? - Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman's American SplendorAmerican Splendor (film)American Splendor is a 2003 American biographical comedy-drama film about Harvey Pekar, the author of the American Splendor comic book series. The film is also in part an adaptation of the comics, which dramatize Pekar's life...
- Tom TykwerTom TykwerTom Tykwer is a German film director, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing Run Lola Run , Heaven , Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , and The International ....
's Run Lola RunRun Lola RunRun Lola Run is a 1998 German crime thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Franka Potente as Lola and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. The story follows a woman who needs to obtain 100,000 German marks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life... - Michael WinterbottomMichael WinterbottomMichael Winterbottom is a prolific English filmmaker who has directed seventeen feature films in the past fifteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features...
's A Cock and Bull StoryA Cock and Bull StoryA Cock and Bull Story is a 2006 British comedy film directed by Michael Winterbottom...
, a film adaptation of Laurence SterneLaurence SterneLaurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
's Tristram Shandy
Television shows
- Arrested Development
- Drawn TogetherDrawn TogetherDrawn Together is an American animated television series, which ran on Comedy Central from October 27, 2004 to November 14, 2007. The series was created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, and uses a sitcom format with a TV reality show setting...
, occasionally. - It's Garry Shandling's ShowIt's Garry Shandling's ShowIt's Garry Shandling's Show is an American sitcom which was initially broadcast on Showtime from 1986 to 1990. It was created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel. The show is notable for its frequent use of breaking the fourth wall to allow characters to speak directly to the audience...
- Princess TutuPrincess Tutuis a magical girl anime series created by Ikuko Itoh in 2002 for animation studio Hal Film Maker. It was adapted as a 2-volume manga illustrated by Mizuo Shinonome...
- Sean's ShowSean's ShowSean's Show was a UK television situation comedy broadcast on Channel 4. Stand-up comedian Sean Hughes co-wrote and starred as a fictionalised version of himself, aware of the fact he was living in a sitcom .It received a nomination for the 1992 British Comedy Award for Best Channel 4...
- The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
- South ParkSouth ParkSouth Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
- Boston LegalBoston LegalBoston Legal is an American legal dramedy created by David E. Kelley, which was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC...
- Red Dwarf: Back to EarthRed Dwarf: Back to EarthRed Dwarf: Back to Earth is a three part TV miniseries continuation of the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, broadcast on the British television channel Dave between 10 April and 12 April 2009 and subsequently released on DVD on 15 June 2009 & on Blu-ray on 31 August 2009. It was the first...
- SupernaturalSupernaturalThe supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
, in the episodes "Hollywood Babylon", "The Monster at the End of this Book", "Lucifer Rising". "The Real Ghostbusters", "Swan Song" and "The French Mistake" - 30 Rock30 Rock30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
- CommunityCommunity (TV series)Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...
Comic strips, comic books and graphic novels
- Berke Breathed, Bloom CountyBloom CountyBloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
- Penny ArcadePenny Arcade (webcomic)Penny Arcade is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic...
frequently features metafiction, particularly their fantasy setting Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga, which has a detailed wiki devoted to it. - Grant MorrisonGrant MorrisonGrant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
's runs on Animal ManAnimal ManAnimal Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . As a result of being in proximity to an exploding extraterrestrial spaceship, Buddy Baker acquires the ability to temporarily “borrow” the abilities of animals...
and Doom PatrolDoom PatrolThe Doom Patrol is a superhero team appearing in publications from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80...
, Flex MentalloFlex MentalloFlex Mentallo is a comic book character created by Grant Morrison for his run on Doom Patrol. Flex is in part a parody of Charles Atlas' long-running "The Insult that made a Man out of Mac" advertisements seen in American comics from the past....
, The Filth, and more recently, Batman R.I.P.Batman R.I.P.Batman R.I.P. is a comic book story arc published in Batman #676-681 by DC Comics. Written by Grant Morrison, penciled by Tony Daniel, and with covers by Alex Ross, the story pits the superhero Batman against the Black Glove organization as they attempt to destroy everything for which he stands...
and Final CrisisFinal CrisisFinal Crisis is a crossover storyline that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics in 2008, primarily the seven-issue miniseries of the same name written by Grant Morrison. Originally DC announced the project as being illustrated solely by J. G. Jones; artists Carlos Pacheco, Marco Rudy and...
. Elements of metafiction can be found in a great deal of Morrison's comics work. Metafictional aspects are especially prominent in The InvisiblesThe InvisiblesThe Invisibles is a comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication....
, a series Morrison has described as a hypersigil designed to effect positive change in the reader's (and writer's) life. - Dave SimDave SimDavid Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
, chapters "Minds" and "Guys" from his six thousand pages graphic novel CerebusCerebus the AardvarkCerebus the Aardvark, or simply Cerebus , is an independent comic book, written and illustrated by Canadian artist Dave Sim, with backgrounds by fellow Canadian Gerhard. Cerebus ran for 300 issues from December 1977 to 2004, and was over 6000 pages long, the longest-running original...
. - The Marvel ComicsMarvel ComicsMarvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
supervillainSupervillainA supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various media.They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes...
s DeadpoolDeadpool (comics)Deadpool is a fictional character, a mercenary and anti-hero appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, Deadpool first appeared in The New Mutants #98 Deadpool (Wade Winston Wilson) is a fictional character, a mercenary and...
and Purple ManPurple ManThe Purple Man is a Marvel Comics supervillain. Originally a foe of Daredevil, he was introduced in Daredevil vol. 1 #4...
are both aware they are in a comic book. - John Byrne's run on The Sensational She-HulkShe-HulkShe-Hulk is a Marvel Comics superheroine. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1 ....
and Dan SlottDan SlottDan Slott is an American comic book writer best known for The Amazing Spider-Man, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and She-Hulk. He is the current writer of the twice monthly The Amazing Spider-Man.-Early writing:...
's run on She-Hulk. - The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket LlamaThe Ongoing Adventures of Rocket LlamaThe Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama is a webcomic starring "a high-flying llama, a sword-swinging cat, and a rocket as loyal as a cowboy hero's horse." Created by Alex Langley while he was a student at Henderson State University, the comic first appeared in a comic book titled The Workday...
is fiction with a metafictional history. - The Order of the StickThe Order of the StickThe Order of the Stick is a comedic webcomic that celebrates and satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy through the ongoing tale of the eponymous fellowship of adventuring heroes...
by Rich BurlewRich BurlewRich Burlew is an author, game designer, and graphic designer best known for The Order of the Stick webcomic. He has written several works for Wizards of the Coast's game Dungeons and Dragons...
. - Claudio SanchezClaudio SanchezClaudio Paul Sanchez is an American writer and musician best known for being the lead singer and guitarist for the alternative/progressive rock group Coheed and Cambria. He is also the creator of the comic book series, The Amory Wars and Kill Audio, co-written with wife Chondra Echert...
's Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1, first half of the fourth chapter of The Amory WarsThe Amory WarsThe Amory Wars, originally entitled The Bag.On.Line Adventures, is an ongoing series of comic books written by Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez and published by Evil Ink Comics. The story of The Amory Wars is also the focus of the band's music...
presents a metafictional aspect to the story when The Writing Writer goes into the story to persuade the main character to accept his destiny. - Alan MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's PrometheaPrometheaPromethea is a comic book series created by Alan Moore, J. H. Williams III and Mick Gray, published by America's Best Comics/WildStorm....
, SupremeSupreme (comics)Supreme is a fictional superhero created by Rob Liefeld and first published by Image Comics, then Maximum Press, and later by Awesome Entertainment...
and The League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
. - Kristofer StraubKristofer StraubKristofer Straub is the creator of webcomics Checkerboard Nightmare, Starslip, Time Friends, Origin Story, and more recently chainsawsuit and F Chords. He is also the co-founder of webcomics collectives Blank Label Comics and Halfpixel...
's Checkerboard Nightmare, portrayed as the workplace of several professional webcomicWebcomicWebcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
actors and marketers. - Triangle and RobertTriangle and RobertTriangle and Robert is a webcomic by Patrick Shaughnessy that ran from August 1999 to September 2007. It is about the adventures of two polygons, an equilateral triangle named 'Triangle', and a rhombus named 'Robert'....
is heavily metafictional.
Artists' books
- Space Opera: The Artist's Book by Michael J. WellerMichael J. WellerMichael John Weller was born in south London in 1946.Weller designed USA sleeve for David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World LP , re-released . As "Captain Stelling" Weller wrote and drew The Firm - an early British artist's publication inspired by American underground comic book innovations...