<p>This thesis attempts to address the notion of unreliable narration
and its treatment tn the postmodern novel. More specifically, it seeks to
identify a number of characteristics shared by novels which offer fictional
treatments of historical biographies and autobiographies. These characteristics include the use of dual ontological narrative structures,
self-reflexivity, the deconstruction of authority and the genre in
question, and finally, the existence of psychological truth in the
narrators.</p>
<p>Chapter One briefly addresses the historical development of
unreliable narration, examining works from Henry Fielding through to
postmoderntsm. Chapter Two begins the Inquiry into specific works by
examining Michael Ondaatje's autobiographical novel, Running in the
Family, and the way that the narrator fabricates a relationship with the
father he has barely known in order to cope with the experience of loss.
Chapter Three concerns Timothy Findley's The Wars, and the
deconstruction of authority in the portrayal of history through a
narrator who, because of emotional involvement with his/her subject,
actively fictionalizes what ts ostensibly intended to be a faithful
historical account. Finally, Chapter Four examines Carol Shields' The
Stone Diaries, and its narrator's active invention of emotional experience
in order to impose meaning on what she perceives as a meaningless
existence.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/15516 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Hill, Steven |
| Contributors | King, James, English |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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