123221 SE Literature Seminar / BA Paper / MA British/Irish/New English (2014W)

In the seminar we will analyse a number of contemporary novels written from the point of view of children. What effects can focalization through the eyes of unreliable, cognitively impaired or immature (child) narrators have on the supposed truth value of the narration and the reader's response to it? How do we recognise unreliable narration? Is our sympathy invariably engaged by insight into a narrator's mind and motivation or are we, rather, put off if his/her world view clashes too radically with our own beliefs and ethical values? How is it that the limited cognitive grasp of a child narrator can be used, variously, to engage our compassion and understanding of people very different from us, as a tool for social and political criticism of the world which shaped these children’s minds and as an innovative perspective on well-known events? How does the use of an unconventional style and structure contribute to the overall effect of the narrative?