Unreliable narrator

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In literature, film, and other such arts, an unreliable narrator is a narrator who cannot be trusted or whose credibility is compromised. As a narrative technique, it can be found in a wide range from children to mature characters. 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. The term "unreliable narrator" was coined by Wayne C. Booth in his 1961 book The Rhetoric of Fiction. 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 "authorial audience". Sometimes the narrator's unreliability is made immediately evident. For instance, a story may open...

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