Theoretically, narrative modes are divided into three levels whose convergence is called metalepsis. Genette characterized it as "any intrusion by the extradiegetic narrator or narratee into the diegetic universe (or by diegetic characters into a metadiegetic universe, etc.) or the inverse.’’ Thus, any convergence or contamination between distinct enunciative situations or diegetic levels, any movement across presumably sacrosanct borders, any violation of the frontier between story and discourse, narrating and narrated, embedding and embedded narratives constitutes a narrative metalepsis. The questions discussed in this article are: 1) what is metalepsis? 2) is it peculiar to postmodern stories or it can be traced back to classical literature? 3) what are the functions of this technique in narrative texts? 4) what are the different types of metalepsis? The goal of the current essay is to define and analyze the theoretical basis of this narratological device.
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