Narrators are almost all we have to go on – so how can we know when they are being unreliable? This mini-lecture looks at how narrators are undermined by contradictions and ommissions in their accounts (factual unreliability), by their incoherent or distasteful views (ethical unreliability), and by naivety (unreliability of sophistication). These varieties are explored particularly in relation to post-war English-language novels with narrators who are male, young, intelligent, arrogant, and dangerous.
