Exegesis. Doctorate in Communication. University of Canberra. Alyssa Brugman. Qualities of Friendship. Unreliable Narration in Young Adult Fiction

Transcription

1 Exegesis Doctorate in Communication University of Canberra Alyssa Brugman Qualities of Friendship Unreliable Narration in Young Adult Fiction

2 Abstract Why is a young adult character s unreliability a useful narrative strategy in one novel and a hindrance in another? Is the writer s allegiance to the reader or to the character they create? These are questions specific to young adult fiction, since the protagonist is inherently unreliable, and the readers are generally inexperienced interpreters of narrative strategies. This research seeks to identify narrative devices from the field of narratology, and determine how they can be used to address the limitations of unreliable narrators in young adult fiction. Five texts have been examined for specific narrative strategies, identified in the structural narratology literature (among these - frequency, anachrony, embedded text, metafiction, and assigning a narratee). Three theorists were particularly inspiring for this research. Many of the texts in narratology do not address the actual author, but instead focus on the reader s interpretation of the text. Concepts put forward by Wayne Booth, Mike Cadden and Theresa Hyde each influenced this research, having perspectives on the obligations of the author to their readership. A number of tactics have been identified in the texts that do not appear in the narratology literature, or seem to have the opposite effect to that which the literature would indicate. The exegesis discusses these narrative strategies and how they contribute to overcoming the limitations of unreliable narrators in young adult fiction. An accompanying manuscript demonstrates some of the strategies discussed in the exegesis. i

3 Prefatory comments This research was carried out under the guidance of Emeritus Professor Belle Alderman. I am very grateful for her ongoing support. Many thanks to the other members of my supervisory panel, Dr Jennifer Webb and Dr Anthony Eaton. I would also like to thank the members of the panels who assessed the progress seminars of this research for their advice, Dr Christine Trimmingham Jack, Dr Jordan Williams and Dr John Cohen. Thanks to Rosalind Price and Mike Shuttleworth who supported my initial application to pursue postgraduate studies at the University of Canberra. As an off-campus student I am also indebted to the library staff at the University of Canberra who always sent me resources swiftly and without incident. I would also like to express my gratitude to my partner Chris Watts for his unwavering confidence in me, and to my children Isaac, Theodore and Scarlett for being so patient. iii

4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 A Young Adult (YA) predicament 3 Aim 9 Overview of the study 9 Contribution of this research Section One - Background 11 Young adult fiction 12 Narratology 22 Narratology structural, postclassical, poststructural 24 Key Narrative Devices 27 Unreliable Narration and Implied Author 27 Dramatic irony and distance 30 Embedded text (levels in narrative) 32 Secondary fabula explains 32 Secondary fabula resembles 33 Focalisation 33 Slant and Filter 34 iv

5 Multiple focalisation 34 Anachrony and ordering of events 36 Metafiction, metanarrative and metalepsis 37 Dissertations narratology and young adult fiction 39 Ethics and Unreliable Narrators 45 Mike Cadden -"The Irony of Narration in the Young Adult Novel" Wayne Booth The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction Section two Research Design 53 Why I have chosen the structural approach 54 Selection of texts for close study Section three - Examination of Selected Texts 60 Elizabeth Fensham Helicopter Man 61 Narrative Strategies Applied 61 Unreliable narration withholding information 62 Filter and the narratee 66 Anachrony order of events 68 Embedded text 72 Other techniques 74 Lessons from Helicopter Man 78 Melina Marchetta Saving Francesca 80 v

6 Narrative Strategies Applied 80 Acknowledging a you and forms of unreliability 81 Unreliability in relation to static minor characters 84 Tense and frequency 84 Secondary and Tertiary Fabulas rescues, word choice and ways to be a woman 88 Lessons from Saving Francesca 96 Cassandra Golds The Museum of Mary Child 98 Unreliable Narration and Point of View 99 Metafiction 102 Willing suspension of disbelief - making the implausible plausible 104 Motifs and repetitions 107 Dolls 108 Prisons and cages 110 Lessons from The Museum of Mary Child 112 Ursula Dubosarsky The Red Shoe 114 Narrative Strategies Applied 116 Ways Matilda is unreliable 117 Temporal techniques 119 Embedded Text The Fairytale and Symbols 120 Embedded text - The Petrov Affair and Newspaper Articles 122 vi

7 Multiple focalisation 124 Floreal an adult consciousness 126 Lessons from The Red Shoe 130 Justine Larbalestier - Liar 133 Ways in which Micah is unreliable 135 Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Fabulas 136 Absence of the implied author 137 Author colluding in the unreliability 138 Metafiction 142 Lessons from Liar Conclusions 146 Ways that characters were unreliable in the selected texts 149 Temporal techniques 151 Point of view 153 Symbols, motifs and embedded text 155 Situating the Creative Work within Young Adult Fiction References 166 Appendix A Review of Girl Next Door 174 vii