unreliable narrator

noun
/(ˌ)ʌnɹɪˌlaɪəbl nəˈɹeɪtə/UK/ˌʌnɹəˌlaɪəb(ə)l ˈnɛˌɹeɪtɚ/US

Etymology

Apparently coined by the U.S. literary critic Wayne Clayson Booth (1921–2005) in The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961): see the quotation.

Definitions

  1. A narrating character or storyteller in a literary or other artistic work (such as a…

    A narrating character or storyteller in a literary or other artistic work (such as a film, novel, play, or song) who provides conflicting, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise questionable information to the audience or reader.

    • As a young and inexperienced observer, Meadows represents the unreliable narrator whose views are sometimes wrong; but he learns from his mistakes and grows in perceptiveness and wisdom as the novel progresses.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for unreliable narrator. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA