Metatheatre

 Term coined by Lionel Abel in 1963 and has since entered common critical usage. Abel
described metatheatre as reflecting comedy and tragedy, at the same time, where the
audience can laugh at the protagonist while feeling empathetic simultaneously. Abel relates
it to the character of Don Quixote, (Miguel de Cervantez), Don kichote whom he considers
to be the prototypical, metatheatrical, self-referring character. Don Quixote looks for
situations of which he wants to be a part, not waiting for life to oblige, but replacing reality
with imagination when the world is lacking in his desires. The character is aware of his own
theatricality.
 etymology of the word "metatheatre" comes from the Greek "meta" which means "a level
beyond."
 Theatre which draws attention to its unreality, especially by the use of a play within a play.
 In other words, it is a theatre about theatre
 Even though Abel coined it in 1963 such works were created much earlier, for example
“Hamlet”

“Hamlet” William Shakespeare

 a troupe of actors is employed by Hamlet to present a play of his choice to the court
 he asks a player to recite a piece about the fall of Troy, he is a very bossy director, going
on for lines and lines about how he wants the players to perform the play exactly as it is
written, to perform subtly and not overact, to be as natural as possible
 Claudius is a mouse and a trap needs to catch his conscience
 Hamlet’s play within a play, also known as “The Mousetrap” is significant to the play
because it provides suspense, exposes the truth, and develops the plot which eventually
leads towards the climax.
 It is important because it develops the plot and confirms Hamlet’s doubts about the
killing of his father by Claudius
 The play presented within Hamlet is actually called “The Murder of Gonzago”, its plot
closely resembles the actual murder of his father
 Hamlet chooses to have it performed to trap Claudius into revealing his guilt, thus the
name Mousetrap (given by Hamlet)
 Hamlet says that the play shouldn’t affect anyone who have free and clean souls
 The plot is successful in the sense that hamlet sees Claudius leave and admit the crime in
a room where he thinks he’s alone
 means of exposing the truth
 Not only do we see a play within a play, but Hamlet himself is a character who has a fair
knowledge of acting and draws critique of himself and others
 Hamlet directs his own play to find out who killed his father
 “Every man is a player, all the world is a stage”
 Hamlet himself pretends to be a madman, Claudius pretends to be sorry for his father’s
death, R&G pretend to be Hamlet’s friends but they were bribed to spy on him
 Theatre becomes a means/tool of searching for the truth
 Theatrum mundi – all the world is a theatre
  In Elizabethan era the director of the play is God

“R&G are dead” Tom Stoppard

 Characteristic feature of Postmodernism in theatre – play referring to a play

 Metatheatre is an important aspect of the play that allows Stoppard to offer a diverse
perspective
 Metatheatre is the use of theatrical terms and concepts inside a play. Hamlet already
utilized metatheatre, with a play occurring within a play. Stoppard uses metatheatre
when he creates a play within a play within a play, adding the layer that would become
“Rosencrantz…”

Metafiction

 A text within a text

 A novel about writing a novel
 Critical comments on the process of writing

“The French Lieutenant’s Woman” John Fowles

 Więcej w pyt. 4
 A Victorian pastiche turning into a consideration of the art of novel as such, deconstruction
of its convention
 Narrator has the benefit of time (narrates from our present)
 Begins as a typical Victorian novel, then in chapter 13 it suddenly becomes a post-modern
narrative, granting freedom to its characters
 Each chapter is prefaced by an epigraph which sometimes are commented upon in a text
 Contains footnotes with sociological, political and scientific data about Victorians
 Offers 3 different ending
 Characters begin to behave unpredictably “It is only when our characters and events begin
to disobey… that they begin to live”
 In chapter 13 the writer confesses he is writing a story and he doesn’t know his characters,
they have free will about what they do, occasionally he comments on their actions
 The narrator as a character in the novel – intruding the story
 The narrator enters his own novel, constantly chats with the reader, visits one of the
character in the train compartment, turns back time after the 2nd ending by 15 minutes
 It includes narrator’s reflection of art, novel (Victorian and modern)
 It incorporates and reacts to many elements of modernist literature, but also involves
Victorian and 20th century context, which provides a unique perspective
 John Fowles has provided multiple endings. By providing more than a single ending John
Fowles has experimented with the nature of the ending. He wrote The French Lieutenant's
Woman to discuss the traditional nature of ending in fiction.
 John Fowles sets The French Lieutenant’s Woman in Victorian time. He, surprisingly enough,
employees a heroine Sarah Woodruff, who has a typical postmodern cast of mind. By
employing a postmodern heroine Sarah in a novel set in Victorian times, John Fowles is
 actually producing a postmodern version of a Victorian novel. To produce an experimental
version of a traditional novel is analogous to writing a meta-fiction.
 Postmodern subversion of traditional components of the narrative included in Victorian
novel.