unreliable narrators

Tore Rye Andersen torerye at hotmail.com
Fri Dec 11 12:17:40 CST 2009


Alice:
 
> What about IV? Can we agree that IV's narrator is unreliable and
> therefore fits out definition (W. Booth)?

I see the narratorial situation in IV as very similar to the one in Lot 49:
The narrative perspective is close to Doc's perspective thoughout, but it is
not identical to Doc's perspective. Doc is not a narrator, he's a character,
and while his perceptions may certainly be unreliable, the narrator of his 
story is not. In fact, as is the case with Lot 49, the narrator actually helps
us see that Doc's perceptions are not always reliable. So no, we can't agree
that the narrator of IV fits Booth's definition of an unreliable narrator. 
 
As for M&D: Cherrycoke is an unreliable narrator, or - in the novel's own words -
an "untrustworthy remembrancer," but the narrator of his narration - the outer 
frame in the nested narratives of the novel - is not. 		 	   		  
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