Editing Meta-reference (section)

== Examples ==
While every medium has the potential for meta-reference, some media can transport meta-reference more easily than others. Media that can easily realise its meta-referential potential includes, for instance, literature, painting, and film. Although music can be meta-referential even outside the confines of lyrics, meta-reference in music is much harder to create or detect.<ref>{{cite book|title=Metareference across Media. Theory and Case Studies|last=Michaelsen|first=René|publisher=Rodopi|year=2009|isbn=978-90-420-2670-4|editor-last=Wolf|editor-first=Werner|location=Amsterdam - New York, NY|pages=235–259|chapter=Exploring Metareference in Instrumental Music -- The Case of Robert Schumann}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Self-Reference in the Media|last=Wolf|first=Werner|publisher=Mouton de Gruyter|year=2007|isbn=978-3-11-019464-7|editor-last=Nöth|editor-first=Winfried|location=Berlin|pages=303–325|chapter=Metafiction and Metamusic: Exploring the Limits of Metareference}}</ref> Music, therefore, would be a less typical medium for the occurrence of meta-reference. Nöth argues in this context that although non-verbal media can be the home of meta-reference, the contained meta-reference can only be implicit because non-verbal media can only show similarities, but never point directly (or explicitly) to meta-referential elements.<ref>{{cite book|title=Metareference across Media. Theory and Case Studies|last=Nöth|first=Winfried|publisher=Rodopi|year=2009|isbn=978-90-420-2670-4|editor-last=Wolf|editor-first=Werner|location=Amsterdam - New York, NY|pages=889–121|chapter=Metareference from a Semiotic Perspective}}</ref> Others, however, argue that meta-reference is explicit as long as it is clear.

=== Literature ===
John Fowles begins chapter 13 of his novel ''[[The French Lieutenant's Woman]]'' with the words<blockquote>This ''story'' I am ''telling'' is all ''imagination''. These ''characters'' I create never existed outside my own mind. If I have pretended until now to know my ''characters''<nowiki/>' mind and innermost thoughts, it is because I am ''writing'' in [...] a ''convention'' universally accepted at the time of my ''story'': that the ''novelist'' stands next to God.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The French Lieutenant's Woman|last=Fowels|first=John|publisher=Vintage|year=2005|isbn=978-0-099-49707-3|location=London|pages=97}}</ref> [emphases added]</blockquote>This is an example of explicit meta-reference because the text draws attention to the fact that the novel the recipient is reading is merely a fiction created by the author. It also foregrounds the convention that readers of [[realist fiction]] accept the presence of an all-knowing narrator, and breaks it by allowing the narrator to take centre stage which invites meta-reflections by the recipient.

In American comic books published by [[Marvel Comics]], the character [[Deadpool]] is aware that he is a fictional comic book character. He commonly breaks the [[fourth wall]], to humorous effect. To other non-aware characters in the story, Deadpool's self-awareness as a comic book character appears to be a form of [[psychosis]]. When other characters question whether Deadpool's real name is even Wade Wilson, he jokes that his true identity depends on which writer the reader prefers.<ref>"Cable and Deadpool" #47.</ref>

=== Film ===
''[[The Truman Show]]'' is a movie that contains a high degree of meta-reference. Truman, the protagonist, is unaware that he is part of a reality TV show, but the audience knows about the artificiality of both Truman's life and, by extension, the movie that is being watched. This is underscored by putting emphasis on the production process of the fictional reality TV show, which makes the audience aware of the same features being used in the movie at the time of watching. Further examples of meta-reference in the movie include spotlights falling from the sky seemingly out of the blue, or a raincloud which is curiously only raining on Truman following him around on Seahaven Beach. Both instances point to the artificiality of Truman's life as well as the film itself.

Other examples include films by [[Mel Brooks]], such as ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'', which becomes a story about the production of the film, and ''[[Silent Movie]]'' is a silent movie about producing a silent movie. Additionally, ''[[The Muppet Movie]]'' and its sequels frequently showed characters referring to the movie script to see what should happen next.

=== Painting ===
{{external media|image1=[https://www.mskgent.be/assets/transforms/adlib/_1434xAUTO_fit_center-center_85_none/204366/137-2d16733206c49016d848d2494f2e2d56.webp ''Manet's Balcony'' by Magritte]}}
[[File:Edouard Manet - The Balcony - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|214x214px|
Manet, ''The Balcony'']]
An example of meta-reference in painting is ''Manet's Balcony'' by [[René Magritte]]. It comments on another painting, [[The Balcony (painting)|''The Balcony'']] by [[Édouard Manet]], by mimicking both the setting of the balcony as well as the poses of the depicted people, but places them in coffins. Thus, the recipient's attention is drawn to the fact that not only are the people in the painting long dead and only still "alive" in the representation, but arguably also that the artist ([[Édouard Manet|Manet]]) and the [[Impressionism|impressionist]] painting style are just as dead as the portrayed individuals. Furthermore, it is foregrounded that the [[Impressionism|impressionist]] painting style is just a style that may be copied, which further emphasises the fact that both works are only paintings created in a specific way.