Hard-to-Google Lit. Crit. Queries...

[steepholm]

Is there a general term for novels (or other fictions) that contain/mention themselves? I mean, the novel is called The Book of Glum, and it's about someone who turns out to be writing or reading a book called The Book of Glum, or we're at least given to know that this is a world where The Book of Glum already exists?

Also, is there decent existing discussion (in journals or elsewhere) of this phenomenon?

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

In Don DeLillo's The Names people are murdered (by a cult) when they go to cities that bear their initials. This was pointed out to me by my friend Neil Hertz, who knew, wistfully, that he'd never get a job at Yale, and saw that as a silver lining. He wrote an article once about Tocqueville's glee in signing his letters, when he was home, as "Tocqueville, de Tocqueville" (which is in Manche).

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Either initial, or does it have to be both, as in your friend's case?

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Both. A moment of revelation comes when the narrator, James Axton, realizes he's in Jebel Amman.