"METAFICTION AS A SELF-REFLEXIVE NARRATIVE MODE: FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS"

This article explores the defining features and key characteristics of the metafiction genre. Metafiction is a significant narrative mode that foregrounds the artificiality of literary texts and reflects on the process of storytelling itself. Gaining prominence in twentieth-century literature, particularly within postmodernism, metafiction challenges traditional realist conventions by exposing the constructed nature of fiction. This article examines the major features and characteristics of the metafiction genre, including self-reflexivity, narrative fragmentation, intertextuality, the questioning of authorship, and reader participation. Through a theoretical and analytical approach, the study highlights how metafiction reshapes the relationship between author, text, and reader, and why it occupies an important place in modern and postmodern literary discourse.