One of the most outstanding properties of Russian postmodernist fiction is its reliance on
metafictional devices which foreground aspects of the writing reading or structure and draw
attention to the constructed nature of fiction writing. Some common metafictional strategies
include overt commentary on the process of writing the presence of an obtrusive narrator
dehumanization of character total breakdown of temporal and spatial organization and the
undermining of specific literary conventions. This book examines the most representative
postmodernist texts and addresses the following questions: How widespread is the use of
metafiction in contemporary Russian literature? What are its most pronounced forms? What is the
function of metafictional devices? How innovative are Russian postmodernist writers in their
use of metafictional techniques? This study reveals the unique contribution of postmodernist
writers to the development of Russian literature through their systematic use of metafiction
and their bold experimentation with new metafictional devices on all the principal levels of
the text including narration plot characterization setting and language.
