Virtual Taster Lecture: English

When reading novels – or, indeed, when listening to people talk – we sometimes get the sense that we are in the hands of an unreliable narrator. But what is it about what they say that gives us this feeling? And is ‘unreliable narration’ a hard and fast category, leaving all other narrators in the category of ‘reliable’?

We will explore these questions by looking at examples taken from Ian McEwan, Sebastian Faulks, Martin Amis, J.D. Salinger, Vladimir Nabokov, Lev Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky amongst others – making a distinction between factual and ethical unreliability, and identifying certain common features of some of the most famous unreliable narrators in European literature.

The hope is that you will go away from this lecture more attuned to – and savvy about – unreliable narrators wherever you may encounter them.

This taster will also include an introductory overview of studying at NCH, and there will be ample time for Q&A with Faculty and Student Ambassadors.