METAFICTION AND THE NOVEL GENRE

The following call for papers for a proposed special session at the 1997 MLA convention in Toronto appears in the current MLA Newsletter:

How do metafictional novels (any period) relate to definitions of the novel as genre? Are there artistic or political limits to the metafictional enterprise?

To elaborate, I am more interested in papers exploring the relationship between metafiction and the novel in general than in papers studying the specific metafictional techniques of author(s) or work(s) in isolation. The following are some issues I have in mind, but certainly aren't exclusive:

• What is the relationship between metafiction, "high culture," and "pop culture"?
• Is the novel inherently metafictional?
• Has the recent metafictional surge run its course?
• Whether or not the recent surge has run its course, how has it influenced other, less clearly metafictional authors?
• Is overt metafiction a recurring, cyclic phenomenon?

In the newsletter I requested papers or 1-page abstracts with vitae: I want to stress that the vita request is only to expedite my assembly of the proposal. Send all materials to:

Michael R. Little
Texas A&M University
Department of English
College Station, TX 77843-4227

e-mail: walrus@tamu.edu