Following are excerpts from the hitherto secret private journal of Woody
Allen, which will be published posthumously or after his death, whichever
comes first.
(Woody Allen, The Insanity Defense)

Woody Allen
within and through
metafiction

STAND-UP COMEDY

INFLUENCES
‘*Bob+ Hope’s
quickness, his
bright, lightly
delivered lines that
sound
conversational
rather than
scripted, made a
lasting impression.’
(Lax: 24)

STYLE
‘*Woody Allen] is strictly a verbal comedian who
gets all his laughs from the subtlety and wit of
his delivery and none of them from physical
funiness.’ (Lax: 136)
‘Woody is one of the few people who could do
set routines and make it look like stream of
consciousness’. (Lax: 190)

‘Audiences saw him as
a person *…+. That
person, of course, was
far more an invention
than a reality but he
was utterly believable.
One reason was that
he was partially a
product of the
audience’. (Lax: 173)

TOPICS
- Autobiographical facts
- Anecdotes
- Contemporary issues
- Upper classes
‘I think I will review for you some of the
outstanding features of my private live and
put them in perspective.’ (Lax: 123)

METAFICTION
-Constant presence of
Woody Allen as:
-Narrator
-Author
-Actor/character

WOODY ALLEN. A CONTRAST
-What he says -What he does

Deconstructing
Harry (1997)
- fiction-reality
This identification is
possible.
WOODY ALLEN
HARRY BLOCK & CHARACTERS
CHARACTERS CREATED BY
HARRY

CHARACTERS’ RELATIONSHIPS
JANET KEN
JANE HARRY
sisters affair couples
LESLIE NORMAN
LUCY MARVIN

WOODY FICTION/WOODY REAL

- Some authors in metafiction:
fear of his fiction perceived as
disguised autobiography.

Vincent Colonna
- Nominal strategy
- Modal strategy

REALITY FICITON
METALANGUAGE
- Metafiction:
Broken frames
- Visually
- Regarding
content

Broken frames

Characters are self-conscious plotters

IMPACT OF THE FILM
ON THE PUBLIC
- Reconciliation?
- Did it work?

Old Saybrook
Writer’s Block
(2003)

ROLE OF THE
AUTHOR
Sally: “Yes – for nine years- we sold the
place to Mr. Krolian”
Hal: “Max Krolian a fairly well-known
writer”

• Max Krolian = Woody Allen
• ‘*the author] playfully introduces himself into
his novels very often through anagrams of
variations on his name’ (Waugh: 132)

FRAMES
Max: ‘These wild animals – I created them –
they turned on me’
*…+
Hal: ‘What?’
*…+
Sheila: ‘He invented us’

Woody Allen
Max Hal & Sandy
David, Norman, Sheila, Jenny + their story
Personal diary

‘There is ultimately no
distinction between
“framed” and
“unframed”. There are
only levels of form, *…+
only content.’ (Waugh:
31)
- No hierarchy
- Drawer – “And Then
What?” premise

CONCLUSION
‘But this movie is not art. It is a clinical
document’ (Maureen Dowd)
‘There is no question that Allen’s movies are
self-reflective’ (Mary P. Nichols)
‘The character played by Allen and the director-
actor who *…+ in the mind of the audience, is
just like the character in the film’ (Tomás
Creus)

THANK YOU!