metanarrative
- noun
- /ˌmɛtəˈnærətɪv/
- Literature
:
metanarrativa
- Thematically, the scriptural presence provides Amos Oz with a vehicle to test the Israeli metanarrative, a fusion of the biblical grand tale and the modern ones, to assess and critique it, and very often, cut it down to size.
Examples
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Postmodern philosophers eschew the notion of universal truth and the search for metanarratives, those grand theoretical frameworks designed to explain the meaning of everything.
Academic text (1993) -
In his lecture, the professor argued that every culture has its own unique metanarrative that shapes its history and values.
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And this has been the new metanarrative for British theater moving forward.
Academic text (2017) -
As I hope this essay reveals, conversations about some metanarratives may be worth joining.
Academic text (2001) -
In this metanarrative, we can glean important clues about modernist creativity.
Academic text (2017) -
In fact, Waiting for Godot represents a typical patriarchal metanarrative that depends on the law of the father to define identity, existence, and meaning.
Academic text (1997) -
Even though postmodern theorists have gone to great lengths to subvert this foundational metanarrative, they have been frustrated by the stubborn fact that, despite many loose ends, it still seems to be working.
Academic text (2007) -
Moral education is a given, and the key debate should be about what kind of metanarratives are socially and ecologically destructive, and what kind of metanarratives can be understood as profoundly instructive in nature.
Academic text (1998) -
A reader who revisits Amos Oz's works in the current postmodern climate is inevitably attuned to the writer's treatment of his national metanarrative, especially because this concept plays an important role in postmodern critical colloquy.
Academic text (2001) -
The novel presents a compelling metanarrative that connects the lives of its diverse characters across different times and places.
Synonyms
336
3.9
A story that describes connected events
A main story that connects several smaller stories or events
A study of other ideas and how their rules and methods work
How Overarching
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Metanarrative comes from the prefix meta- meaning 'about' or 'beyond' (as in metadata) and narrative meaning 'story'. So a metanarrative can be a big, overall story or idea that gives meaning and structure to many smaller stories.