translation studies. retrospective and prospective views

Translation Studies: Retrospective and Prospective Views ISSN 2065 - 3514
(2008) Year I, Issue 1
Galaţi University Press
Editors: Elena Croitoru and Floriana Popescu (First volume)
Proceedings of the Conference Translation Studies: Retrospective and Prospective Views
9 – 11 October 2008 “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi, ROMANIA
pp. 44 - 56
INTO THE LABYRINTH OF (META)FICTION WITH
THE MAGUS
Cristina Mălinoiu Pătra cu
“Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi, Romania
In keeping with Linda Hutcheon’s theory on metafiction which she
calls narcissistic fiction, John Fowles’s The Magus may be considered as a
metafictional novel that addresses fundamental issues of human existence
and offers, at the same time, a critical perspective of its own process of
creation.
In his brief study on metafiction, Guido Kums (‘Metafictional
Explorations into Novel Theory’) starts his analysis from Linda Hutcheon’s
distinction between overt, diegetic metafiction and covert, linguistic metafiction.
Overt, diegetic metafiction takes its own status, the conventions of the
novel and the process of narration as its theme, whereas covert metafiction
uses intertextual references and parody that aims to demonstrate either
language’s inability to communicate meaningfully or alternatively
“language’s ability to create worlds which may be more coherent and
meaningful than the ‘real’ one.” (Hutcheon in Kums, 1996: 149) Guido
Kums focuses on the overt metafiction sustaining that there are four main
areas at which the questions raised by the metafictional novel are targeted
(1996: 151-154), namely: the relationship between fiction and reality, the
problem of the value of literature and its impact on social life, the domain
of the novel itself as a genre with its own conventions, and last but not
least, the area of language, as metafictional novels subscribe to the view
that “the world cannot be represented in literary fiction, it is only possible
to represent the discourse of that world.” (Waugh in Kums, 1996: 154)
The next pages will prove that The Magus explores all these areas
revealing itself as a self-reflexive narrative. Thus, the close analysis of the
novel will focus on investigating those literary devices that make it an overt
metafiction.
An element which is considered to be an obvious sign of selfreflection
appears in the form of asides. It is known that the novel has an
aside, a ‘Foreword’ in which the author himself ‘explains’ to the reader
how s/he should approach his novel. Michaela Praisler comments that:
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