Abstrakt
This article deals with the metafictional character of the works of Chinese avant-garde writer Ma Yuan. It describes the background of Ma Yuan's writings and the shift of the focus from the background to other narrative elements that can be described as metafictional or metanarrative.
The first part of the article introduces the basic theoretical definitions of meta-elements in fiction and applies them on specific cases in the works of the author. In the second part, the overall context of the literary-political status quo at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of 1980s in China is outlined and then the article deals with the potential subversive effect of the meta-elements in Ma Yuan's fiction within the literary discourse.
The article reaches the conclusion that it is the disruption of literary codes and the transfer of creative power from the author to the reader that constitutes the essence of the subversion of Ma Yuan's works.