Abstract
The concept of an unreliable third-person narrator may seem a contradiction in terms. The very act of adopting a third-person stance to tell a story would appear to entail an acceptance of a basic need for truth-telling, a commitment to what Wayne Booth terms the implied author's "norms of the work." Nonetheless, in the essay that follows, three of Katherine Mansfield's short stories - "A Cup of Tea" (1922), "Bliss" (1918) and "Revelations" (1920) - will be examined in order to demonstrate how the strategic suppression of the distinction between the voice of the narrator and that of the central character can lead to a strong sense of unreliability. In order to read such narratives effectively, the reader must reappraise the value of certain other stylistic elements, including the use of directives involved with directly quoted speech, seemingly minor discrepancies between adjacent sentences and, perhaps most importantly, the structure of the fiction itself. We contend that Mansfield's use of this form of unreliable third-person fiction is her unique contribution to the short story genre.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 67-85 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Journal of Literary Semantics |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 Apr 1 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Literature and Literary Theory
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Unreliable Third Person Narration? The Case of Katherine Mansfield. / Murphy, Terence Patrick; Walsh, Kelly S.
In: Journal of Literary Semantics, Vol. 46, No. 1, 01.04.2017, p. 67-85.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Unreliable Third Person Narration? The Case of Katherine Mansfield
AU - Murphy, Terence Patrick
AU - Walsh, Kelly S.
PY - 2017/4/1
Y1 - 2017/4/1
N2 - The concept of an unreliable third-person narrator may seem a contradiction in terms. The very act of adopting a third-person stance to tell a story would appear to entail an acceptance of a basic need for truth-telling, a commitment to what Wayne Booth terms the implied author's "norms of the work." Nonetheless, in the essay that follows, three of Katherine Mansfield's short stories - "A Cup of Tea" (1922), "Bliss" (1918) and "Revelations" (1920) - will be examined in order to demonstrate how the strategic suppression of the distinction between the voice of the narrator and that of the central character can lead to a strong sense of unreliability. In order to read such narratives effectively, the reader must reappraise the value of certain other stylistic elements, including the use of directives involved with directly quoted speech, seemingly minor discrepancies between adjacent sentences and, perhaps most importantly, the structure of the fiction itself. We contend that Mansfield's use of this form of unreliable third-person fiction is her unique contribution to the short story genre.
AB - The concept of an unreliable third-person narrator may seem a contradiction in terms. The very act of adopting a third-person stance to tell a story would appear to entail an acceptance of a basic need for truth-telling, a commitment to what Wayne Booth terms the implied author's "norms of the work." Nonetheless, in the essay that follows, three of Katherine Mansfield's short stories - "A Cup of Tea" (1922), "Bliss" (1918) and "Revelations" (1920) - will be examined in order to demonstrate how the strategic suppression of the distinction between the voice of the narrator and that of the central character can lead to a strong sense of unreliability. In order to read such narratives effectively, the reader must reappraise the value of certain other stylistic elements, including the use of directives involved with directly quoted speech, seemingly minor discrepancies between adjacent sentences and, perhaps most importantly, the structure of the fiction itself. We contend that Mansfield's use of this form of unreliable third-person fiction is her unique contribution to the short story genre.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017622872&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85017622872&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/jls-2017-0005
DO - 10.1515/jls-2017-0005
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85017622872
VL - 46
SP - 67
EP - 85
JO - Journal of Literary Semantics
JF - Journal of Literary Semantics
SN - 0341-7638
IS - 1
ER -