BIOGRAPHICAL TRUTH THROUGH THE PRISM OF METAFICTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN IAN WATSON’S CHEKHOV’S JOURNEY

Abstract

This study aims to spotlight the postmodern tendency of metafiction in Ian Watson’s novel “Chekhov's Journey”. Metafiction is self-conscious in relation to language, literary form, and storytelling in fiction. This form of fiction accentuates its construct and reminds the readers to be aware of a fictional work. Ian Watson is a noteworthy science-fiction writer, and his famous novelsare ‘The Embedding’ (1973) and ‘The Jonah Kit’ (1975), which brought him prestigious awards, while in this study we will focus on his metafictional work ‘Chekhov’s Journey’. This novel exhibits the subject of postmodern metafiction. In this novel, a modern-day actor uses hypnosis to simulate Anton Chekhov's 1890 journey through Siberia. The method of study adopted the metafiction theories proposed by Patricia Waugh and Linda Hutcheon. It highlights Ian Watson’s texts that represent the elements of metafiction through the protagonists. Using various theories related to postmodern metafiction, the view of metafiction in the work is substantiated and explored. The postmodern perspective of metafiction is explored in Ian Watson’s text and analyzed with metafiction theories. The study results are compared and discussed with other studies and contemporary texts concerning metafiction. The findings show that metafiction is applicable in the given work of Ian Watson. He projects the aspects of metafiction in his work through his writing, especially narration, both fiction and reality.