Sliding through ‘Mirrors’ in Suzy Lee’s Metafictive Picturebooks: An Inquiry of Fiction and Reality

‘Mirrors’ that produce illusions of reality are often naturalised or overlooked in fiction and daily life. However, they are shaping the ways people perceive and engage with fiction and reality. Metafictive picturebooks problematise mimetic illusions and expose their artificiality, affording opportunities for readers to inquire into fiction-and-reality relationships. This research examines how ‘mirrors’ operate in Suzy Lee’s picturebooks Alice in Wonderland (2002), Mirror (2003), and Shadow (2010). It finds that Suzy Lee’s ‘mirrors’, through four actions: revealing, reframing, penetrating, and engulfing, suggest four types of understanding regarding fiction-and-reality relationships: (1) fiction is not reality, (2) the definitions of fiction and reality are unstable, (3) fiction and reality interact with each other, and (4) fiction and reality are inseparable. This study indicates that metafictive picturebooks have the potential to challenge the assumed notions of representation as mimetic and transparent. By blurring the fiction-and-reality border, metafictive picturebooks challenge the fiction and reality dichotomy and foster a nuanced exploration of the complex dynamics between the two.