Fourth wall

A similar effect of metareference is achieved when the performance convention of avoiding direct contact with the camera, generally used by actors in a television drama or film, is temporarily suspended.

[2] The concept is usually attributed to the philosopher, critic and dramatist Denis Diderot, who wrote in 1758 that actors and writers should "imagine a huge wall across the front of the stage, separating you from the audience, and behave exactly as if the curtain had never risen".

One of the earliest recorded breakings of the fourth wall in serious cinema was in Mary MacLane's 1918 silent film Men Who Have Made Love to Me, in which the enigmatic author – who portrays herself – interrupts the vignettes onscreen to address the audience directly.

[7] Oliver Hardy often broke the fourth wall in his films with Stan Laurel, when he would stare directly at the camera to seek sympathy from viewers.

[8] Woody Allen broke the fourth wall repeatedly in his movie Annie Hall (1977), as he explained, "because I felt many of the people in the audience had the same feelings and the same problems.

[12][13] The 2022 Persuasion film was criticized for its modernization take on the classic 1817 Jane Austen novel by having the main protagonist Anne Elliot (played by Dakota Johnson) constantly breaking the fourth wall by interacting with the audience.

[19] Another approach to breaking the fourth wall is through a central narrator character who is part of the show's events, but at times speaks directly to the audience.

For example, Francis Urquhart in the British TV drama series House of Cards, To Play the King and The Final Cut addresses the audience several times during each episode, giving the viewer comments on his own actions on the show.

This is similar to how The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Clarissa Explains It All and Malcolm in the Middle use fourth wall breaks to set up stories or have characters comment on situations.

[24] Showtime's Shameless has a main character breaking the fourth wall at every episode beginning to deliberately criticize and threaten the viewers to emphasize the morally deficient plots and characters likely in an deliberate attempt to turn away any naïve viewers to maintain the exclusiveness of the series, only to add to its popularity.

Furthermore, breaking the fourth wall can also be used in meta-referencing in order to draw attention to or invite reflection about a specific in-universe issue.

This literary device utilises self-referencing to trigger media-awareness in the recipient, used to signpost the drastic shift in perspective from the Eldian to the Marleyan side, and can be employed in all sorts of media.

This was due to actor John Normington misunderstanding a stage direction,[26] but the episode's director, Graeme Harper, felt that this helped increase dramatic tension, and decided not to reshoot the scenes.

For example, X-Men for the Mega Drive/Genesis requires players to reset their game console at a certain point to reset the X-Men's in-game Hazard Room, while Metal Gear Solid asks the player to put the DualShock controller on their neck to simulate a back massage being given in-game.

[35] Artists like Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse and Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions used the genre to question the accepted knowledge and sources of the culture.

[36] The use of metafiction or breaking the fourth wall in literature varies from that on stage in that the experience is not communal but personal to the reader and develops a self-consciousness within the character/reader relationship that works to build trust and expand thought.

Modern examples of breaking the fourth wall include Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota,[38] and William Goldman's The Princess Bride.

[39] Sorj Chalandon wrote a novel called "The 4th wall" of the setting-up of a theatrical performance of Antigone in Beirut, while the civil war is raging.