This diploma thesis studies the characteristics of American metafiction on the examples of two short stories by two American authors from different generations, one by John Barth and the other by David Foster Wallace. In the first part, thesis shows why American metafiction belongs in the context of postmodernism, and observes its key characteristics in Barth's short story Lost in the Funhouse. In the second part, thesis focuses on David Foster Wallace's story, Westwards the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, which is an explicit parody of Lost in the Funhouse. The final part tries to establish whether Westwards the Course of Empire Takes its Way is also an example of American metafiction or whether its use of metafictional devices is so different from Barth's that it should be taken out of the context of postmodernism.
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