Meta-pictorial discourse and the early theory of the novel in eighteenth-century Britain

Abstract The first half of the eighteenth century saw a tendency among early British novelists to frame their fictional narratives with theoretical deliberations that helped to situate their texts within the complex network of fictional taxonomies and conventions. Typically in the form of authorial prefaces, these commentaries were implicitly or explicitly intertextual, invoking other texts and authors by way of contrast and/or comparison. Given the unstable taxonomy at the time, referring to other literary projects proved a relatively efficient strategy of self-definition. If purely literary meta-discourse may be taken for granted, the peculiarity of a number of authorial commentaries in the eighteenth century was meta-pictorial content. This article traces the uses of two types of meta-pictorialism. The first type is metaphorical: the use of painterly vocabulary with reference to literary aspects. A mere rhetorical device at first glance, this type is also revealing of generic issues. The second type is meta-pictorial naming, that is, a meta-commentary using the name of a painter.