Nünning, Vera (2013):
"Unreliable Narration als Schlüsselkonzept und Testfall für neue Entwicklungen der Postklassischen Narratologie: Ansätze, Erklärungen und Desiderata." Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift 63.1: 135-160.
Journal Article

Abstract

During the last fifteen years or so, unreliable narration has not only developed into a phenomenon of scholarly interest and narratological inquiry; it also captures the imagination of the public, who avidly read stories or watch films which feature unreliable narrators. From the point of view of literary studies, the topic is particularly interesting because it is not only situated at the interface of different narratological approaches, but also at the cross­ roads where narratology, theories of fictionality, ethics, and interpretation meet. Giving an overview and discussion of recent research developments with regard to unreliability, this essay attempts to show that an exploration of this key concept can provide valuable insights into the advantages and the possible limitations and blind spots of those approaches. Looking at unreliable narration as a test-case for the various postclassical approaches, the article discusses the advances made in the reconceptualization of unreliable narration in e.g. cognitive narratology, feminist narratology, and transgeneric and intermedial studies of unreliable narration, while also offering a brief overview of new research questions and horizons that have opened up as well as some desiderata and suggestions for future research on unreliable narration.