Metafictional Discourse and the Deconstruction of Literary Reality

This article examines the role of metafictional discourse in the deconstruction of literary reality within postmodern fiction. Unlike traditional narratives that seek to maintain coherence and represent reality through stable narrative structures, postmodern metafiction deliberately destabilizes assumptions concerning truth, representation, and textual authority. Through qualitative literary analysis and discourse-based interpretation, this study investigates how self-reflexive narration, narrative fragmentation, authorial intrusion, and ontological uncertainty function as mechanisms of literary deconstruction. Selected works by John Fowles are analyzed within the theoretical frameworks of metafiction and postmodern narrative studies. The findings demonstrate that metafictional discourse transforms literary reality into a dynamic and unstable construct, requiring readers to participate actively in meaning production. The study concludes that postmodern metafiction challenges conventionalliterary systems and reconstructs narrative reality through self-conscious textual practices.