Avendaño Alicia
Gómez Alan
Verón Melina
Lic. Mariana Mussetta - Literature I
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional
FRVM

“It is a term given to fictional writing
which self-consciously and
systematically draws attention to its
status as an artefact in order to post
questions about the relationship
between fiction and reality” (Waugh 2).
He was born in 1947 in New Jersey,
USA. His parents were Jewish.
 His writings deal with absurdism,
existentialism, crime fiction, the search
for identity and personal meaning,
writing and story telling
(Metafiction).
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On the 25th December 1990, Paul
Auster published “Auggie Wren’s
Christmas Story” in the New York
Times.
 Paul Auster is the writer and narrator of
the story. However, when Auggie tells
his Christmas story, he becomes the
narrator.
 The reader can identify one story within
the other.

Characters
Paul:
a writer who is asked to write a short
story for the New York Times that would
appear on Christmas morning.
Auggie: a man who works at a cigar store
in Brooklyn. He considers himself an artist.
He tells Paul his Christmas story.
In this story Granny Ethel and Auggie are
the main characters.
Plot
The story is about a writer (Paul Auster), who
starts a friendship with Auggie Wren, a man
who works at a cigar store. One day, Auggie
shows Paul his life’s work: a set of twelve
identical photo albums containing more than
four thousand photographs. This pictures have
been taken on the corner of Atlantic Avenue
and Clinton street, at seven o’clock every
morning for twelve years. After observing them
carefully, Paul realizes Auggie has been
photographing time.
Then the writer is asked to write a short story
for the New York Times, to be published on
Christmas morning. As Paul finds difficult to
write about this celebration, Auggie offers to
tell him “the best Christmas story”. The story
Auggie tells Paul reveals how he began his
career as an artist.
The story reflects various metafictional
features:
- A story containing another work of fiction
within itself: Auggie’s Christmas story.
- A story where the narrator intentionally
exposes him or herself as the author of the
story: “I will tell you the best Christmas story
you ever heard” (Auster 2).
- An autobiographical fiction: in his real
life, Paul Auster was asked to write a story for
the newspaper.
He was born in 1914, in Brussels, Belgium.
His parents were Argentinian, but they were
living abroad. When he was 4, they came back
to Argentina.
 Many of Cortázar's stories follow the logic of
hallucinations and obsessions. Central themes
are the quest for identity, the hidden reality
behind the everyday lives of common people,
and the existential angst.
 Cortázar died in 1984, in Paris, France.
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It was published in 1956 in Argentina.
This story belongs to a book called Final del
Juego, which contains eighteen stories.
These are divided into three levels of
difficulty, which means that each level
becomes more complex and harder for the
reader to understand.
The book is considered to be a game for the
reader’s mind as it mixes the limits between
reality and fiction.
Characters
- The man reading a novel.
- Within the novel: A man
A woman
(lovers)
Plot
The story is about a man who is reading a
novel in his comfortable armchair. He is
reading about two lovers who are planning to
kill somebody.
As he continues reading, the couple, mainly
the man, is carrying out the plan as it has been
arranged.
Do you think that the man who is
reading the story realizes he is reading
about himself?
The story reflects various metafictional
features:
- A story containing another work of
fiction within itself: the novel being read by
the man.
- An “insecurity about the relationship
between fiction and reality” (Waugh 2): the
reader of “Continuidad de los Parques” may
not distinguish what is fiction from reality.
- A reader reading a book: the man
reading the novel.
She was born in 1936 in England.
 Her childhood was unhappy because of her
overprotective mother.
 Her son died at the age of 11 in a car
accident.
 In her stories, she mixes
naturalism and realism with
fantasy.
 She won the Booker Prize in
1990 for Possession.
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Definition: “a baby that is believed to
have been secretly exchanged for another
baby by fairies.” (Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English)
It belongs to a book called Sugar and
Other Stories, a collection of short
fictions, published in 1987 in New York.
This story is written in third person
singular and it includes dialogues
between the characters.
Characters
Josephine Piper: a writer whose main
subject is fear. She helps Max with “lost
boys” from the boarding school.
 Max McKinley: the headmaster of the
boarding school.
 Henry Smee: one of the “lost boys” sent to
Josephine’s house.
 Simon Vowle: main character of Josephine’s
story The Boiler-Room.

Plot
The story is about a writer called Josephine,
who helps Max, the headmaster of a boarding
school, with the “lost boys.”
One day, Max asks her to look after Henry
Smee, “a brilliant boy, but not easy” (Byatt 147).
Max thinks that Henry is quite similar to Simon
Vowle, the fictional character in Josephine’s story
The Boiler-Room.
While living together, she starts being afraid
of Henry due to his strange behavior.
Henry starts reading her book, and
identifies himself with the main character,
Simon. When she finds out about this, she
becomes uncomfortable and uneasy because
“Simon was herself,”… “Simon was her own fear”
(Byatt 156).
One night she finds Henry in her bedroom
looking at her mirror. She gets really scared and
shouts him to go away from her house.
After some time, Max tells her that Henry
has committed suicide.
The story reflects various metafictional
features:
- A reader reading a book: Henry reading The
boiler-Room.
- A story within a story: The Boiler-Room within
“The Changeling”.
- An autobiographical fiction: Simon Vowle
depicts Josephine’s life.
- An “insecurity about the relationship between
fiction and reality” (Waugh 2): Josephine – Simon.
Auster, Paul. “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story”. Print.
Byatt, Susan. “The Changeling” in Sugar and Other
Stories. New York: Vintage International, 1992.
Print.
Campbell, Jane. A.S Byatt and the Heliotropic
Imagination. Canada: Wildfrid Laurier University
Press, 2004. Print.
Cortázar, Julio. “La Continuidad de los Parques” en El
Final del Juego, 1956. Print.
Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction. London: Routledge,
1984. Print.
Barone, Dennis. Beyond the Red Notebook.
United States: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1995. Print.