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THEMATIC RELEVANCE OF JOHN GARDNER'S "UNRELIABLE NARRATOR."

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Date Issued:
1978
Summary:
Gardner's use of unreliable and often intrusive narrative voices is a structural key to the world view presented in his novels. All the narrators, whether they be involved central characters or intrusive third-person voices, journey toward knowledge and affirmation in art. In The Wreckage of Ag'athon, the aged seer is driven by the chaos he cannot untangle to create his own rationale. Grendel embraces a nihilistic world view until the monster is finally lifted to a limited sort of vision as a shaper of experience. The voice of The Sunlight Dialogues is limited omniscient, yet the narrator intrudes, reminding the reader that he is dependent upon an involved point of view. In the dream-narrative of Jason and Medeia, perhaps the best utilization of an involved, fallible narrator, the journey toward affirmative vision balongs more to the narrator than the hero.
Title: THE THEMATIC RELEVANCE OF JOHN GARDNER'S "UNRELIABLE NARRATOR.".
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Name(s): ATWILL, WILLIAM D.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of English
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1978
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 95 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Gardner's use of unreliable and often intrusive narrative voices is a structural key to the world view presented in his novels. All the narrators, whether they be involved central characters or intrusive third-person voices, journey toward knowledge and affirmation in art. In The Wreckage of Ag'athon, the aged seer is driven by the chaos he cannot untangle to create his own rationale. Grendel embraces a nihilistic world view until the monster is finally lifted to a limited sort of vision as a shaper of experience. The voice of The Sunlight Dialogues is limited omniscient, yet the narrator intrudes, reminding the reader that he is dependent upon an involved point of view. In the dream-narrative of Jason and Medeia, perhaps the best utilization of an involved, fallible narrator, the journey toward affirmative vision balongs more to the narrator than the hero.
Identifier: 13911 (digitool), FADT13911 (IID), fau:10737 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1978.
Subject(s): Literature, Modern
Literature, American
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13911
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.