Unreliable narrator 未刪版.doc

Unreliable narrator An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised.1 The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction.2 This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually to deceive the reader or audience.1 Unreliable narrators are usually first-person narrators, but third-person narrators can also be unreliable.The nature of the narrator is sometimes immediately clear. For instance, a story may open with the narrator making a plainly false or delusional claim or admitting to being severely mentally ill, or the story itself may have a frame in which the narrator appears as a character, with clues to his unreliability. A more dramatic use of the device delays the revelation until near the storys end. This twist ending forces the reader to reconsider their point of view and experience of the story. In some cases the narrators unreliability is never fully revealed but only hinted at, leaving the reader to wonder how much the narrator should be trusted and how the story should be interpreted.Historical novels, speculative fiction, and clearly delineated dream sequences are generally not considered instances of unreliable narration, even though they describe events that did not or could not happen.Contents 1 Examples of unreliable narrators o 1.1 Historical occurrences o 1.2 Novels 1.2.1 Types of Unreliable Narrators o 1.3 Films o 1.4 Television o 1.5 Comics 2 Notable works featuring unreliable narrators 3 References o 3.1 Footnotes o 3.2 Textbook o 3.3 External links edit Examples of unreliable narratorsedit Historical occurrencesOne of the earliest uses of unreliability in literature is Plautus comedy Miles Gloriosus (2-3 century BC) which features a braggster soldier who constantly embellishes his accomplishments. The literary device of the unreliable narrator was used in several medieval fictional Arabic tales of the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights.3 In one tale, The Seven Viziers, a courtesan accuses a kings son of having assaulted her, when in reality she had failed to seduce him (inspired by the Quranic/Biblical story of Yusuf/Joseph). Seven viziers attempt to save his life by narrating seven stories to prove the unreliability of the courtesan, and the courtesan responds by narrating a story to prove the unreliability of the viziers.4 The unreliable narrator device is also used to generate suspense in another Arabian Nights tale, The Three Apples, an early murder mystery. At one point of the story, two men claim to be the murderer, one of whom is revealed to be lying. At another point in the story, in a flashback showing the reasons for the murder, it is revealed that an unreliable narrator convinced the man of his wifes infidelity, thus leading to her murder.5Another early example of unreliable narration is Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. In The Merchants Tale for example, the narrator, being unhappy in his marriage, allows his misogynistic bias to slant much of his tale. In The Wife of Bath, the Wife often makes inaccurate quotations and incorrectly remembers stories.edit NovelsWilkie Collins early detective story The Moonstone (1868) is an early example of the unreliable narrator in crime fiction. The plot of the novel unfolds through several narratives by different characters, which contradict each other and reveal the biases of the narrators. A controversial example of an unreliable narrator occurs in Agatha Christies novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, where the narrator hides essential truths in the text (mainly through evasion, omission, and obfuscation) without ever overtly lying. Many readers at the time felt that the plot twist at the climax of the novel was nevertheless unfair. Christie used the concept again in her 1967 novel Endless Night.Many novels are narrated by children, whose inexperience can impair their judgment and make them unreliable. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Hucks innocence leads him to make overly charitable judgments about the characters in the novel.Ken Keseys two most famous novels feature unreliable narrators. Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest suffers from schizophrenia, and his telling of the events often includes things such as people growing or shrinking, walls oozing with slime, or the orderlies kidnapping and curing Santa Claus. Narration in Sometimes a Great Notion switches between several of the main characters, whose bias tends to switch the readers sympathies from one person to another, especially in the rivalry between main character Leland and Hank Stamper. Many of Susan Howatchs novels similarly use this technique; each chapter is narrated by a different character, and only after reading chapters by each of the narrators does the reader realize each of the narrators has biases and blind spots that cause them to perceive shared experiences differently.Humbert Humbert, the main character and narrator of Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita, often tells the story in such a way as to justify his pedophilic fixation on young girls, in particular his sexual relationship with his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Similarly, the narrator of A. M. Homes The End of Alice deliberately withholds the full story of the crime that put him in prison the rape of a young girl, and subsequent murder of a man until the end of the novel.In some instances, unreliable narration can bring about the fantastic in works of fiction. In Kingsley Amis The Green Man, for example, the unreliability of the narrator Maurice Allington destabilizes the boundaries between reality and the fantastic. The same applies to Nigel Williamss Witchcraft.6 An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears also employs several points of view from narrators whose accounts are found to be unreliable and in conflict with each other.7Mike Engleby, the narrator of Sebastian Faulks Engleby, leads the reader to believe a version of events of his life that is shown to be increasingly at odds with reality.8Zeno Cosini, the narrator of Italo Svevos Zenos Conscience, is a typical example of unreliable narrator: in fact the novel is presented as a diary of Zeno himself, who unintentionally distorts the facts to justify his faults. His psychiatrist, who publishes the diary, claims in the introduction that its a mix of truths and lies.9edit Types of Unreliable NarratorsAttempts have been made at a classification of unreliable narrators 10 William Riggan analysed in his study discernable types of unreliable narrators, focusing on the first-person narrator as this is the most common kind of unreliable narration. Adapted from his findings is the following list: The Pcaro: a narrator who is characterized by exaggeration and bragging. The first example probably being the soldier in Plautus comedy Miles Gloriosus. Examples in modern literature are Moll Flanders, Simplicius Simplicissimus or Felix Krull. The Madman: A narrator who has severe mental illness such a schizophrenia or paranoia. Examples include Poes Montresor in The Cask of Amontillado or Barbara Covett in Notes on a Scandal. The Clown: A narrator who does not take narrations seriously and consciously plays with conventions, truth and the readers expectations. A good example is Tristram Shandy. The Naf: A narrator whose perception is immature or limited through their point of view. Examples include Huckleberry Finn or Holden Caulfield. This typology is surely not exhaustive and cannot claim to cover the whole spectrum of unreliable narration in its entirety or even only the first-person narrator. Further research in this area has been called for 11It also still remains a matter of debate whether and how a non first-person narrator can be unreliable.edit FilmsOne of the earliest examples of the use of an unreliable narrator in film is the German expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, from 1920.12 In this film, an epilogue to the main story is a twist ending revealing that Francis, through whose eyes we see the action, is a patient in an insane asylum, and the flashback which forms the majority of the film is simply his mental delusion. A much more recent film (and play) to use a similar plot device is Amadeus. This tale is narrated by an elderly Antonio Salieri from an insane asylum, where he claims to have murdered his rival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is left unclear whether the story actually happened, or whether it is the product of Salieris delusions.In Citizen Kane (1941), the story of Charles Foster Kane is told by five different acquaintances of his, each with varying opinions of the character.In the 1996 film, Courage Under Fire, Denzel Washingtons character is tasked with researching the events related to a posthumous Medal of Honor nomination for a female helicopter pilot (played by Meg Ryan). The research involves getting accounts of the events from the other people present, other military members who survived. Their accounts are seen as flashbacks and while the basic facts are the same in each memory, the details vary greatly.The 1945 film noir Detour is told from the perspective of an unreliable protagonist who may be trying to justify his actions.131415In Possessed (1947), Joan Crawford plays a woman who is taken to a psychiatric hospital in a state of shock. She gradually tells the story of how she came to be there to her doctors, which is related to the audience in flashbacks, some of which are later revealed to be hallucinations or distorted by paranoia.16The film Rashomon (1950), adapted from In a Grove (1921), uses multiple narrators to tell the story of the death of a samurai. Each of the witnesses describe the same basic events but differ wildly in the details, alternately claiming that the samurai died by accident, suicide, or murder. The term Rashomon effect is used to describe how different witnesses are able to produce differing, yet plausible, accounts of the same event, with equal sincerity.The narrator of the 1950 Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard, William Holdens character of down-and-out screen-writer turned kept man Joseph C. Gillis, is an unreliable narrator because his narration of the film is delivered from beyond the grave, as Gloria Swansons character, former silent-screen actress Norma Desmond, had shot and killed him the night before the earliest events in the film (which he narrates posthumously, and in flashback) began.The 1995 film The Usual Suspects reveals that the narrator had been deceiving another character, and hence the audience, by inventing stories and characters from whole cloth.1718In the 1999 film Fight Club, it is revealed that the narrator suffers from multiple personality disorder and that some events were fabricated, which means only one of the two main protagonists actually exists, as the other is in the narrators mind.19In the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, it is eventually revealed that the narrator is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and many of the events he witnessed occurred only in his own mind.20edit TelevisionIn the final episode of M*A*S*H, unreliable narration is used to create dramatic effect; Hawkeye Pierce, now a patient of Sidney Freedman in an army mental hospital ward, recounts a traumatic memory of a recent event. In the recounting a key component is substituted with something more innocuous, leaving the viewer wondering why that incident resulted in his mental illness. Later, psychoanalysis with free-association reveals the true memory, which is much more disturbing and can be clearly seen as the cause.In the episode Three Stories of the show House, M.D., the title character, Dr. Gregory House, gives a lecture recounting the stories of three patients who came in with leg pain. House constantly changes details and lies about the stories to make them more interesting and, as is ultimately revealed, to conceal the identity of one of the patients.How I Met Your Mother creator Craig Thomas has explicitly said that the series narrator, Future Ted, voiced by Bob Saget, is an unreliable narrator. The narrator would sometimes come up with what if? conversations for other characters and almost revealing key plot points. Other times, he cant remember the names of some of the people hes met and calls them names such as Blah Blah or Honey, citing its been over 25 years.21In the episode Remember this (Season 3, episode 4) of the British sitcom Coupling, the story of the first meeting of Patrick and Sally is recounted by several people, all of whom turn out to be unreliable narrators. Most jokes in this episode hinge on disparities amongst certain details of the story (and their psychological implications).edit ComicsIn Alan Moore and Brian Bollands Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker, who is the anti-hero of the story, reflects on the pitiful life that transformed him into a psychotic murderer. Although the Jokers version of the story is not implausible given overall Joker storyline in the Batman comics, the Joker admits at the end of The Killing Joke that he himself is uncertain if it is true.22Between his first appearance in 2008 and 2010, the human identity of Red Hulk, a tactically intelligent version of the Hulk, was a source of mystery. In the 2010 book Fall of the Hulks: Gamma, Red Hulk is depicted in flashback to have killed General Thunderbolt Ross at the behest of Bruce Banner (the Hulks human identity), with whom he has formed an alliance.23 However, in the 2010 World War Hulks storyline that flashback is revealed to have been false when, during a battle with Red She-Hulk, the Red Hulk reverts to human form, and is revealed to be General Thunderbolt Ross himself.24edit Notable works featuring unreliable narrators Martin Amiss Times Arrow25 Emily Bronts Wuthering Heights26 Peter Careys Illywhacker27 Angela Carters Wise Children28 Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales Wilkie Collinss The Moonstone29 The works of Bret Easton Ellis, most prominently American Psycho30 William Faulkners The Sound and the Fury1 F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby31 Ford Madox Fords The Good Soldier32 Kazuo Ishiguros When We Were Orphans33 Henry Jamess The Turn of the Screw34 James Lasduns The Horned Man35 Anita Looss Gentlemen Prefer Blondes36 Vladimir Nabokovs Pale Fire37 Mordecai Richlers Barneys Version383940 The works of Gene Wolfe, most prominently The Book of the New Sun and The Fifth Head of Cerberus41 William Thackerays The Luck of Barry Lyndon Robert Gravess I, Claudius Films with an unreliable point-of-view (or points-of-view): Amarcord directed by Federico Fellini42 Big Fish directed by Tim Burton43 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari directed by Robert Wiene44 Fight Club directed by David Fincher45 Hero (2002) directed by Zhang Yimou46 Memento directed by Christopher Nolan47 Rashomon directed by Akira Kurosawa48 edit Referencesedit Footnotes1. a b c How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II, by James N. Frey (1994) ISBN 0312104782, p. 107 2. Booth, Wayne C: The Rhetoric of Fiction. 1961. Chicago: U of Chicago Press. 1995, p. 158-159. 3. Irwin, Robert (2003). The Arabian Nights: A Companion. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p.227. ISBN1860649831 4. Pinault, David (1992). Story-telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights. Brill Publishers. p.59. ISBN9004095306 5. Pinault, David (1992). Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights. Brill Publishers. pp.937. ISBN9004095306 6. Martin Horstkotte. Unreliable Narration and the Fantastic in Kingsley Amiss The Green Man and Nigel Williamss Witchcraft. Extrapolation 48,1 (2007): 137151. 7. THE MYSTERY READER reviews: An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. T. /pears-instance.html. Retrieved 13 November 2011. 8. Roberts, Michle (18 May 2007). Engleby, by Sebastian Faulks. Sad lad, or mad lad?. The Independent (London). http:/www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/engleby-by-sebastian-faulks-449269.html. Retrieved 21 March 2009. 9. James Wood reviews Zenos Conscience by Italo Svevo, edited by William Weaver, Memoir of Italo Svevo by Livia Veneziani Svevo, translated by Isabel Quigly and Emilios Carnival by Italo Svevo, translated by Beth Archer Brombert LRB 3 January 2002. Lrb.co.uk. http:/www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n01/james-wood/mixed-feelings. Retrieved 13 November 2011. 10. Riggan, William: Pcaros, Madmen, Nafs and Clowns: The Unreliable First-Person Narrator , University of Oklahoma Press: Norman (1981). 11. Nnning, Ansgar: “But Why Will You say That I Am mad?” On the Theory, History and Signals of Unreliable Narration in British Fiction, in Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 22/1 (1997), pp 1 -105. 12. Film Studies: Dont Believe His Lies, by Volker Ferenz 13. Detour (1945) (Ferdy on Films, etc.)dead link 14. 1dead link 15. Detour (1945). Film Talk. /forums/lofiversion/index.php/t14372.html. Retrieved 13 November 2011. 16. Possessed movie review. A Life At the Movies. 20 June 2010. /movie-of-the-day/possessed/. 17. Schwartz, Ronald (2005). Neo-Noir: The New Film Noir Style from Psycho to Collateral. Scarecrow Press. p.71. ISBN9780810856769. /?id=VRCgRGFV0ycC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q= 18. Lehman, David (2000). The Perfect Murder: A Study in Detection (2nd ed.). University of Michigan Press. pp.221