Abstract

The concept of ‘narrative metalepsis’ is first introduced and characterized by Gerard
Genette (1972) along two integrated dimensions: one is concerned with the formal
profile of metaleptic narration, particularly the formal linguistic features
distinguishing it from intra-, extra-, and meta-diegetic levels; the other is concerned
with the world-creating and (at the same time) world-destroying functions performed
by metaleptic narration. Of these two, only the second, that is the functional aspect of
metalepsis-in postmodern fiction alone-has almost entirely attracted the attention of
narrativists at the expense of marginalizing any research on the first aspect. However,
drawing on some of the most prototypical cases of metalepsis in modern Persian
narratives (including realistically and postmodernistically motivated ones), this
article aims at classifying and clarifying the applications of metaleptic technique in
narrative contexts.