This volume is the first to collect writings specifically on the subject of metafiction and brings together the best writing from literary criticism and theory on the topic. It offers a new definition of metafiction, moving away from the idea of it being fictional 'self-consciousness' and redefining it as a borderline territory between fiction and criticism. Following the proliferation of metafiction in the last two decades, with an increasing interpenetration of professional literary criticism and fictional writing, the book emphasises the importance of recent developments in literary theory, historiography and the philosophy of language.