Unreliable Narration and (Dis-)Orientation in the Postmodern Neo-Gothic Novel: Reflections on Patrick McGrath's The Grotesque (1989)

Abstract

This article analyses the forms and functions of unreliable narration in a postmodern neogothic novel and thus tries to view the phenomenon of the unreliable narrator not merely from the point of view of the narratologist intending to devise a watertight descriptive definition of the technique and to place it consistently within-a conceptual framework. Rather, narratology and cultural studies are to be brought together here in an attempt at determining the cultural functions of a special form of narrative in a historical situation often described as plural, fragmented and devoid ofa centre, i.e. one creating problems of orientation. Unreliable narration thus turns out to be a useful tool in the artistic process of coping with the postmodern condition.

Keywords

• Narratology
• Neogothic novel
• Cultural studies
• Postmodernism