Unreliable Narrators in Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Age of Reason and Iris Murdoch’s The Bell

Document Type : Qualitative Research

Authors
Malihe al-Sadat Banifatemi 1
Jalal Sokhanvar 2
1 Islamic Azad University of Tehran, North-Branch
2 Shahid Beheshti University
Abstract
The present study is a comparative study of Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Age of Reason and Iris Murdoch’s The Bell. The main focus is on “unreliable narrator” which is a popular concept at the present time when humanity enjoys manipulating each other and suffers himself from misunderstandings. Wayne C. Booth was the earliest theorist who provided a practical definition of “unreliable narrator” and his theory is considered as the framework. Previously, the studies only focused on homodiegetic narrators but, here, other narrative techniques are analyzed. In other words, the point of view and the presence of multiple perspectives and voices are crucial in the analysis of unreliable narratives. These narrative techniques and unreliable narrators are scrutinized at the social and political contexts of the novels. Accordingly, New Historicism, specifically Stephen Greenblatt’s theory, is used as another approach to reveal the presence and function of the unreliable narrators in the selected literary works.

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