On the semantics of unreliable narration

Authors

  • Анна Сергеевна Ласточкина St. Petersburg State University
  • Диана Михайловна Коробова St. Petersburg State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu09.2017.302

Abstract

The article contains descriptions of some key questions related to unreliability in fiction. Unreliable narration is described as a complex of authorial markers that create discrepancy between the authorial and the narratorial levels and are used to construct the reader’s journey through the text. The article touches upon the issue of possible classifications of types of unreliability based either on the functions of narrator or on the semantic functions of unreliability. The article shows how unreliability can be used to create both “open” texts with intradiegetic narration, such as short stories by R. Akutagawa, and “closed” texts with extradiegetic narration, such as novels by J. Austen.

Keywords:

narratology, unreliability, unreliable narrator, intradiegetic narrator, extradiegetic narrator

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References

Библиография:

Акутагава 1971 — Акутагава Р. Избранное в двух томах. Т. 1. В. Гривнин, И. Львова, В. Маркова, Б. Раскин, Н. Фельдман (пер.). М.: Худож. лит., 1971. 469 с.

Жданова 2008 — Жданова А. В. Нарративный лабиринт «Лолиты»: (структура повествования в условиях ненадеж. нарратора). Дис. … канд. филол. наук. Самарский гос. ун-т. Тольятти, 2008. 165 с.

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Booth 1983 — Booth W. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983. 572 p.

Nunning 1999 — Nunning A. «Reconceptualizing the Theory and Generic Scope of Unreliable Narration». Reconceptualizing Trends in Narratological Research. Pier, J. (ed.). Tours: Tours Univ. Press, 1999. P. 63– 84.

Olson 2003 — Olson G. Reconsidering Unreliability: Fallible and Untrustworthy Narrators. Narrative.11 (1), 2003: 93–109.

Phelan 2007 — Phelan J. Estranging Unreliability, Bonding Unreliability, and the Ethics of Lolita. Narrative. 15 (2), 2007: 222–238.

Shen 2015 — Shen D. «Unreliability». The Living Handbook of Narratology. Huhn P., et al. (ed.). Hamburg: Hamburg Univ. Press, 2015. URL: http://wikis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Unreliability (дата обращения: 15.02.2017).

Bibliography:

Акутагава 1971 — Akutagava, R. Izbrannoe v dvukh tomakh [Selected works in 2 vols]. Vol. 1. Grivnin, V., Lvova, I., Markova, V., Raskin, B., Feldman, N. (transl.). Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literatura Publ., 1971. 469 p. (In Russian)

Жданова 2008 — Zhdanova, A. V. Narrativnyi labirint «Lolity»: (struktura povestvovaniia v usloviiakh nenadezhnogo narratora) [Narrative labyrinth of «Lolita»: (structure of narration with an unreliable narrator)]. PhD Dissertation (Philology), Samara State University. Togliatti, 2008. 165 p. (In Russian)

Тимофеев В. Г. 2004 — Timofeev, V. G. Ustalost priema — 2… ustalost priema — 3 [Is Shklovsky’s automatization doctrine immune to automatization?]. Vestnik SPbGU. Ser. 9. Filologiia. Vostokovedenie. Zhurnalistika — Vestnik of St. Petersburg State University. Series 9. Philology. Asian studies. Journalism. 1–2, 2004, pp. 10–18. (In Russian)

Успенский 2000 — Uspenskii, B. A. Poetika kompozitcii [Poetics of composition]. St. Petersburg, Azbuka Publ., 2000. 348 p. (In Russian)

Эко 2007 — Eco, U. Rol chitatelia. Issledovaniia po semiotike teksta [The role of the reader. Research on semiotics of text]. Lakhuti, D. (ed.). Serebrianyi, S. D. (transl.). St. Petersburg, Symposium Publ., 2007. 502 p. (In Russian)

Booth 1983 — Booth, W. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983. 572 p. (In English)

Nunning 1999 — Nunning, A. “Reconceptualizing the Theory and Generic Scope of Unreliable Narration”. Reconceptualizing Trends in Narratological Research. Pier, J. (ed.). Tours, Tours Univ. Press, 1999, pp. 63–84. (In English)

Olson 2003 — Olson, G. Reconsidering Unreliability: Fallible and Untrustworthy Narrators. Narrative. 11 (1), 2003, pp. 93–109. (In English)

Phelan 2007 — Phelan, J. Estranging Unreliability, Bonding Unreliability, and the Ethics of Lolita. Narrative. 15 (2), 2007, pp. 222–238. (In English)

Shen 2015 — Shen, D. «Unreliability». The Living Handbook of Narratology. Huhn, P., et al. (eds.). Hamburg, Hamburg Univ. Press, 2015. Available at: http://wikis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Unreliability (accessed: 15.02.2017). (In English)

Published

2017-09-14

How to Cite

Ласточкина, А. С., & Коробова, Д. М. (2017). On the semantics of unreliable narration. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Language and Literature, 14(3), 317–325. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu09.2017.302

Issue

Section

Literary Studies