Further Reading
A. Flash Back: A Jump Back to Premodern Postmodernism
Metafictional sections of the Bible, such as the first chapter of Genesis. Study related works on Kabbalism.
Scenes from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, in which bards sing their works, a metafictional presentation of how the epics were presented within themselves.
Selection from Plato’s Phaedrus on writing.
Description: Plato criticizes writing through writing. (He also bans poets from the Republics although his own writing is quite poetic.)
Shakespeare, William. Scenes in Shakespeare that present a play within a play:
Hamlet (Mousetrap), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pyramus), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Nine Worthies), The Tempest (Pageant & possibly whole play), The Taming of the Shrew (Christopher Sly), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Pageant in forest), Troilus & Cressida (Ulysses describes others doing impersonations of generals), Henry IV, Pt. 1 (Tavern scene), Henry VIII (Mask vision), King Lear (Mock trial), Macbeth (Show of 8 kings), Cymbeline (Jupiter & ghosts), Pericles (Dumb shows). List from PlayShakespeare.com.
B. Fiction (some selections are postmodern, rather than metafiction)
The Arabian Nights. Ed. by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith. Illus. by Maxfield Parrish. (Apocryphal Tales from 1001 Nights, like Sinbad and Alladin)
Auster, Paul. “The Locked Room.” New York Stories. 1986. 138 pgs.
Ballard, J. G. The Atrocity Exhibit. 1969. 110 pgs.
–. Chronopolis: The Science Fiction of J. G. Ballard. 1979.
Barnes, Julian. History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters.
Barth, John. “Dunyazadiad.” Chimera. 1972. 64 pgs.
Barth, John. The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor. 1991. 573 pgs.
Barthelme, Donald. Sixty Stories. 1970. 63 pgs. (Remaining collections and review Come Back Dr. Caligari and Unspeakable Practices.)
Barthelme, Donald. Snow White. 1967. 181 pgs.
Calvino, Italo. If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller. 1979. 259 pgs.
Chekhov, Anton. The Seagull. 1895.
Biely, Andrey. St. Petersburg. 1959.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. 1353. (Remainder.)
Borges, Jorge Luis. Collected Fictions. (Unread fictions.)
Burgess, Anthony. The End of the World News.
Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury Tales. (Unread tales.)
Danielwsi, Daniel. House of Leaves. 2000. 709 pgs.
de Unamuno, Miguel. Mist 1914.
Dick, Phillip K. Valis.
Ende, Michael. The Never-Ending Story. (Reread.)
Fielding, Henry. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
Gardner, John. Grendel. (Reread.)
Gide, Andre. The Counterfeiters.
Gogol, Nikolai. The Overcoat and Other Stories.
Goldman, William. The Princess Bride. (Reread.)
Grudin, Robert. Book: A Novel.
Hoover, Paul, ed. Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology. 679 pgs
Joyce, James. Finnegan’s Wake. (Remainder.)
Kostova, Elizabeth. The Historian.
Michaels, Leonard. “I Would Have Saved Them If I Could.”
Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen.
Murakami, Haruki. Kafka on the Shore.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried.
O’Nolan, Brian. At Swim-Two-Birds. 1939.
Ovid. Metamorphoses.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club.
Reed, Ismael. Mumbo Jumbo. 1972. 218 pgs.
Sorrentino, Gilberto. Mulligan Stew.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s Cradle.
Wallace, David Foster. Infinite Jest.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.
C. Critical Works
Dallenbach, Lucian. The Mirror in the Text. 1989. 268 pgs. (Literary criticism.)
Fielder, Leslie. What was Literature?: Class Culture and Mass Society. 1982.
Heisermann, Arthur. Novel Before the Novel: Essays and Discussion. 1977.
Tanner, Tony. City of Words: American Fiction 1950 – 1970. 1976. 464 pgs.
Thiher, Allen. Words in Reflection. 1987. 256 pgs.
Varsava, Jerry A. Contingent Meanings. 1990. 240 pgs.
