Abstract
The present article considers two metafictional novels published at the end of the 20th century against the background of cognitive literary studies. The formal features of the novels are discussed with a view to the way they defamiliarize various concepts: fiction itself, consciousness, memory, science, art, reading, the internet, artificial intelligence, etc. The novels’ attempts at fostering a dialogue between fiction and the humanities, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other, are mirrored by the reader’s vacillation between engagement and detachment and the effects of the texts’ self-reflexivity on the reader’s mind.