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Literature vocabulary · Narration and Point of View

Unreliable narrator

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounCommon term

In literature, unreliable narrator means: A narrator whose account cannot be fully trusted because he or she lies, misunderstands events, is mentally unstable or is too young or biased to see clearly.

In Turkish: güvenilmez anlatıcı

How it is used

Term coined by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961). Classic examples are Stevens in Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, Humbert Humbert in Nabokov's Lolita and the narrator of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. Popular in psychological thrillers.

Example sentences

  1. Halfway through the book, you realize you are dealing with an unreliable narrator.

  2. What clues in the text show that the narrator is unreliable?

Common collocations

  • an unreliable narrator
  • classic unreliable narrator
  • narrated by an unreliable narrator
  • narratorThe voice that tells the story to the reader. It may be a character in the story or an outside voice, and it is not the same as the author.
  • first-person narratorA narrator who is a character in the story and tells it using 'I', so readers see events only through that character's eyes.
  • point of viewThe position from which a story is told, which decides whose eyes we see events through and how much we learn, for example first-person or third-person.
  • ironyA contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what actually happens, often used for humor or criticism.

More terms: Narration and Point of View

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