The Unreliable Narrator (Non-credit)

Pre-requisites for enrolment

No previous knowledge of the subject needed. Previous students on this strand will enjoy returning to study a new reading list.

Special Information

See below for book list.

Content of Course

This course provides an insight into the development of the unreliable narrator and how it has been used across a variety of novels. Students will have the opportunity to consider the different ways in which writers can suggest unreliability as well as the structural and stylistic devices which support it. We will explore Agatha Christie’s controversial use of the unreliable narrator in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, as well as how the approach is used to suggest the liminal spaces in which narrators in Camus and Ellison must live. We will also look at how comedy can be generated through a lively narratorial voice in The Observations and how David Copperfield’s famous narration of his fictional autobiography is recast by Barbara Kingsolver. Guidance will be provided weekly of our focus points for discussion and additional resources will be available on our course LEARN site. By the end of the class, students will have a wider understanding of the development of the figure of the great detective in a Scottish context.

WEEKS 1 AND 2: Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

WEEKS 3 AND 4: Jane Harris, The Observations

WEEKS 5 AND 6: Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man

WEEKS 7 AND 8: Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

WEEKS 9 AND 10: Albert Camus, The Outsider

Teaching method(s)

The Unreliable Narrator explores the relationship between the reader and the narrator and how potential unreliability on the part of the narrator affects that relationship. Students on this course will read five texts which make use of an unreliable narrator. Through mini-lectures and seminar discussion, students will explore the key elements of each novel and develop skills in close reading, critical analysis, using and interpreting secondary reading and writing an academic piece of work. Students will engage with the texts through excerpts for close reading, chosen by the tutor, in a supportive tutorial atmosphere.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Discuss texts confidently;

• Assess literature based, to a certain extent, on their own close reading;

• Place literature in its historical context;

• Discuss the various ways in which authors use an unreliable narrator to inject suspense and offer alternative viewpoints on events.

Sources

Core Readings

Students are advised to wait until the course has been confirmed to run before purchasing any of the recommended books.

Essential:

Christie, A. (2018) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. London: Harper Collins.

Harris, J. (2007) The Observations. London: Faber

Ellison, R. (2001) The Invisible Man. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics.

Kingsolver, B. (2023) Demon Copperhead. London: Faber.

Camus, A. (2013) The Outsider. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics.

Recommended:

Mullan, John, 2008. How Novels Work. Oxford: OUP.

Booth, Wayne C, 1995. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Olson, Greta, 2003. Reconsidering Unreliability: Fallible and Untrustworthy Narrators. Narrative. 11(1), p. 93.

Rabinowitz, Peter J., 1977. Truth in Fiction: A Reexamination of Audiences. Critical Inquiry. 4(1), p. 121.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email COL@ed.ac.uk or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.