Unreliable narrator autobiography

Narrator whose credibility is compromised

In literature, film, and other such arts, an unreliable narrator is a narrator who cannot be trusted, one whose credibility is compromised.^[1] They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters.^[2] While unreliable narrators are almost by definition first-person narrators, arguments have been made for the existence of unreliable second- and third-person narrators, especially within the context of film and television, but sometimes also in literature.^[3]

The term “unreliable narrator” was coined by Wayne C.

Booth in his 1961 book The Rhetoric of Fiction.^[4] James Phelan expands on Booth’s concept by offering the term “bonding unreliability” to describe situations in which the unreliable narration ultimately serves to approach the narrator to the work’s envisioned audience, creating a bonding communication between the implied author and this