Aporia

 

 

Aporia

A rhetorical figure for doubt. Especially associated with deconstructive thinking, an aporia may arise when the reader encounters two or more contradictory codes, ‘messages’ or ‘meanings’ in a text. It involves an impasse or site of undecidability” (Benette and Royal) An example of this could be taken from the Simpsons TV show:

Homer: Marge? Since I'm not talking to Lisa, would you please ask her to pass me the syrup?
Marge: Dear, please pass your father the syrup, Lisa.
Lisa: Bart, tell Dad I will only pass the syrup if it won't be used on any meat product.
Bart: You dunkin' your sausages in that syrup homeboy?
Homer: Marge, tell Bart I just want to drink a nice glass of syrup like I do every morning.
Marge: Tell him yourself, you're ignoring Lisa, not Bart.
Homer: Bart, thank your mother for pointing that out.
Marge: Homer, you're not not-talking to me and secondly I heard what you said.
Homer: Lisa, tell your mother to get off my case.
Bart: Uhhh, dad, Lisa's the one you're not talking to.
Homer: Bart, go to your room.

(http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/QAaporia.htm)

 

 

 

 

 

Metafiction

Metafiction

 

  Metafiction is when a piece of fiction calls attention to itself as a piece of fiction. Often, it is a fiction within a fiction.  An example of this would be Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 1979. “Characters consult The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the playful science fiction novel of the same name. This is an example of a mise en abyme, or a book within a book.”

 (http://ronosaurusrex.com/metablog/list-of-metafictional-works/)