El espejo roto: la metaficción en las series anglosajonas

Abstract

This article examines how, coming from different aesthetic and generic directions, a representative portion of Anglosaxon television series build up their stories by means of breaking –at different levels– the illusionist mirror that characterizes traditional fiction. In this way, they are –implicitly or explicitly– reflecting on the conventions of Realism. The article begins by exposing some theoretical issues about the concept of metafiction. Featuring examples collected since 2001, there follows cartographic research into all the possibilities that metafictional tv-series can harbor: a manipulative narrator, the juxtaposition of diegetical worlds, television as thematic seed for innovative stories, the hybrid game of self-consciousness and, lastly, the direct appeal to the audience’s attention as the major reflective device used by contemporary anglosaxon television series up to now.