Metafiction · English Literature

Italo Calvino’s 'If on a winter's night a traveler' is considered a masterpiece of metafiction because its primary protagonist is:

  1. Fiction that employs accurate scholarly footnotes to authenticate and verify its historical claims
  2. Fiction that parodies and mocks historical documents to satirize and ridicule the past
  3. Fiction that reimagines history while interrogating how historical narratives are constructed
  4. Biography that incorporates invented fictional dialogue to make the subject more appealing
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: Fiction that reimagines history while interrogating how historical narratives are constructed

Coined by Linda Hutcheon, this term describes works like 'Midnight's Children' that engage with history but treat it as a subjective narrative construct. It suggests that our knowledge of the past is always mediated through texts.

Difficulty: Medium Question 5 of 20

Practice all 20 Metafiction questions

Keep practicing

More Metafiction questions