In a confessional, first person narrative, the concept of truth and how it is constructed and perceived is important. Truth in fiction can be created and interpreted in a number of different ways, and when the narrative that portrays it in addition is unreliable and ambiguous, discerning truth becomes a decidedly complex process. This essay interprets the confessional testimony of the narrator in John Banville’s The Book of Evidence, in order to examine the function of these narrative devices and how they affect the understanding of what is true in Banville’s unreliably narrated novel. It does so by following literary theories regarding unreliable narration by Tamar Yacobi and others, as well as theories of truth in fiction as first presented by David Lewis and expanded upon by Ben Levinstein and others. The different types of ambiguity suggested by William Empson are also considered. The novel’s narrative is analyzed specifically in relation to the understanding of how the protagonist eludes to his feelings of guilt and shame. These emotions are chosen for their prevalence in conventional confessions. The essay claims that the narcissistic narrator harbors neither of these feelings pertaining to the crime he has committed, but rather that he admits to being guilty and is ashamed of being caught, and that this is portrayed through the structure of the narrative rather than its content.

Novel: You & I. 'You & I' is a coming-of-age tale tied up in the themes of trauma, memory and storytelling. It follows sixteen-year-old Esther, who is sent to live on the fictional Cornish island of Little Wimbish following the disappearance of her bipolar mother. Once on the island where her mother grew up, the damaged and reclusive Esther finds herself caught up in the lives, history and folklore of the Wimbish community - not to mention the mystery of her father's identity. As the story progresses and Esther becomes more invested in the fairy tale escapes promised by the island she now calls home, the voice switches back and forth between the second and first person - and we begin to suspect that our narrator may have inherited her mother's illness. This is a novel concerned with how we tell stories - about ourselves, our histories, and the places we live - and why. Essay: The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Turning Trauma into Narrative in Anne Enright's The Gathering, Niall Williams' History of the Rain, and John Banville's The Sea. How do we recover from trauma, and what role can storytelling play in the recovery process? This essay investigates the notion that in Anne Enright's The Gathering, Niall Williams' History of the Rain and John Banville's The Sea, each narrator carries out an attempt at recovery, enacted through a written recollection of their past traumas. Taking inspiration from various trauma theorists and psychologists, along with writer and trauma survivor Edward St Aubyn, this essay lays out the necessary steps which must be taken in order to integrate trauma into one's life story. By writing down their trauma, constructing a narrative which allows for a certain amount of invention, facing up to the dirtier and more difficult aspects of their experiences, and finally, sharing the finished narrative with another person, the trauma survivor may facilitate the beginnings of a recovery.

<p>This phenomenological study of John Banville’s fiction exhibits the way in which <i>Doctor Copernicus</i>, <i>Kepler, The Newton Letter</i>, and <i>Mefisto</i> persistently present air as a constituting factor. Air occurs as a phenomenological oasis permitting constitution to effectuate disclosure <i>ex nihilo</i>. As a self-constituting field of forms rather than as a system or arrangement of signs, <i>Doctor Copernicus</i> promotes a vision of reality that bypasses a world of scientific or aesthetic representation where objective or subjective deciphering has precedence over immediate revelation as immanent showing. In <i>Kepler</i>, air’s <i>aseity </i>marks a process of constitution intense enough to erase any sense of separation between the flight-paths of discovery and the thing discovered—thus producing the impression of an intriguing parity between the constituting and the constituted. Phenomena of aviation outline the experience of air’s constituting capacity as a prehuman directedness with no source outside itself. The scientist is drawn into an airborn or airborne allure recasting his life in more profound ways than those made available in cosmological inquiry. By means of the slightness of its constituting touch, air is shown as giving birth to apparently insignificant phenomena highlighting an explorability that cannot be defined in terms of mathematical models or logical postulations. In <i>The Newton Letter</i> penurious phenomena gain ascendancy over the scientist through a process defined as <i>autochthonous substantiation</i>. As in <i>Mefisto</i>, the destructive power of accidental fire reduces material and immaterial worlds to an empirical nothing where air, almost indistinguishable from that emptiness, becomes a form of saying facilitating recovery, or the semblance thereof. Finally the study elucidates the phenomenon of <i>monozygotic gemination</i> in <i>Mefisto,</i> a constituting force that allows a phantom brother or phantom limb to function as a regenerating resource rather than as a missing entity.</p>

This phenomenological study of John Banville’s fiction exhibits the way in which Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, The Newton Letter, and Mefisto persistently present air as a constituting factor. Air occurs as a phenomenological oasis permitting constitution to effectuate disclosure ex nihilo. As a self-constituting field of forms rather than as a system or arrangement of signs, Doctor Copernicus promotes a vision of reality that bypasses a world of scientific or aesthetic representation where objective or subjective deciphering has precedence over immediate revelation as immanent showing. In Kepler, air’s aseity marks a process of constitution intense enough to erase any sense of separation between the flight-paths of discovery and the thing discovered—thus producing the impression of an intriguing parity between the constituting and the constituted. Phenomena of aviation outline the experience of air’s constituting capacity as a prehuman directedness with no source outside itself. The scientist is drawn into an airborn or airborne allure recasting his life in more profound ways than those made available in cosmological inquiry. By means of the slightness of its constituting touch, air is shown as giving birth to apparently insignificant phenomena highlighting an explorability that cannot be defined in terms of mathematical models or logical postulations. In The Newton Letter penurious phenomena gain ascendancy over the scientist through a process defined as autochthonous substantiation. As in Mefisto, the destructive power of accidental fire reduces material and immaterial worlds to an empirical nothing where air, almost indistinguishable from that emptiness, becomes a form of saying facilitating recovery, or the semblance thereof. Finally the study elucidates the phenomenon of monozygotic gemination in Mefisto, a constituting force that allows a phantom brother or phantom limb to function as a regenerating resource rather than as a missing entity.