"Skins, Masks, Writing Pads: An African American Perspective on Metafiction"

Despite its considerably longer history, metafiction is typically associated with the postmodern fiction of the late 20th century and, in the 21st century, with the suspicious modes of reading that “postcritical” discourses suggest we need to move beyond. In contrast to both these interrelated conceptions, this talk examines African American literature as a tradition in which metafiction has always constituted an integral part. With examples from John Edgar Wideman’s Fanon: A Novel (2008), the paper shows how the novel offers up metatextuality as a practice that serves to emphasize collective creative and critical agency. Rather than a sign of “usedupness” or suspicion, then, metafiction is established as a political tool that offers the possibility to “recreate the world anew.”