135114 SE BA-SE: Unreliable Narration (2023W)

Ever since Wayne C. Booth drew narrative research's attention to the category of the "unreliable narrator" in 1961, incomplete, unreliable, lying narratives have become favourite subjects of literary studies. This is probably because in texts with "unreliable narration" the rules of the game of storytelling are made conscious, in such a way that the implicit intellectual trial of strength between narrator (and thus actually the author after all) and recipient comes into focus. The seminar will be devoted to a number of classic "unreliably narrated" texts and will also pursue a thorough discussion of the narratological foundations that enable the study of unreliability. The corpus treated is likely to include E.A. Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart", N. Gogol's "Notes of a Madman", G. de Maupassant's "Le Horla", H. James's "The Turn of the Screw", but also V. Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire" and/or his story "The Needle of Admiralty", A. Camus' "La chute", A. Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" and probably Bryan Singer's film "The Usual Suspects" as well as David Lynch's "Lost Highway" or a comparable film. It is expressly pointed out that the seminar can only be successfully completed with thorough reading of the primary texts, regular participation and active preparation of the secondary narratological literature. In consultation with you, I will also do some writing exercises to help you write your BA thesis.