Metafiction: The Art of Self-Aware Storytelling 

Early examples of Metafiction:
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The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (1387):
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Don Quixote, Part Two, by Miguel de Cervantes (1615):
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Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz,” by Johann Valentin Andreae (1617):
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The Cloud Dream of the Nine, by Kim Man-Jung (1687):
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The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne (1759):
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Sartor Resartus, by Thomas Carlyle (1833-34):
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Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray (1847):
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