<b>Texts that (des)construct themselves: Metafiction and intertextuality in the young adult contemporary fiction

The present study aims to investigate an increasing trend in contemporary young adult literature: the use of intertextuality and metafictional strategies as a form to increase narrative complexity, challenging linearity, enlarging possible readings of texts, and promoting dialogue with other texts and even other artistic universes. To this purpose, the text focuses on two contemporary novels, a Portuguese and a Brazilian one, respectively Os livros que devoraram o meu pai, by Afonso Cruz, and A audácia dessa mulher, by Ana Maria Machado. This study also aims to analyse how these novels, of clear metafictional nature, promote dialogue with other texts, while showing the reader their ‘poiesis’ process and their fictional construction process, transforming reading into a remarkable challenge