An introduction to the theory of unreliable narration and outlines two critical approaches: the cognitivist and the rhetorical.
Body language experts and polygraph tests can help us to determine when we are being deceived, but how do we know whether the narrator in a literary text is lying to us? This talk provides an introduction to the theory of unreliable narration and outlines two critical approaches: the cognitivist and the rhetorical. Using examples from Günter Grass’s 1959 novel The Tin Drum I demonstrate how we can tell when a narrator is telling tall tales and how that changes the way we read.
