The configuration of fictional space in postmodernist fiction

Abstract EN

The modernist retreat of the author from his/her prerogated space as “authorial persona” precipitated the radical changes in the nature and form fictional space that bifurcates into narratival and narrational.

This evacuation of the authorial persona space, effected by the cultural pressures that render “totalization” difficult, transfers the interpretation responsibility to the reader.

Postmodernist fictions, in this respect, push the reader to occupy more space in the narrative by leaving sizable gaps in it; metafiction presents itself as a logical outcome of this process.

When the reader has secured a place within the narrative ontology, the metafictional author contends with the reader for the occupation of fictional space.

This results into the foregrounding of the fictional space and fictionality in general.

The dynamics of this process relates to a consideration of the space of the speaker, the narrational space of fiction.

This paper discusses the issue of postmodernist fictional space with reference to pertinent theories and relevant postmodern novels as examples that clarify the discussion.4