Editing Unreliable narrator (section)

==Classification==
Attempts have been made at a classification of unreliable narrators. William Riggan analysed in a 1981 study four discernible types of unreliable narrators, focusing on the first-person narrator as this is the most common kind of unreliable narration.<ref name="Riggan">{{cite book |last=Riggan |first=William |title=Pícaros, Madmen, Naīfs, and Clowns: The Unreliable First-person Narrator |year=1981 |publisher=Univ. of Oklahoma Press: Norman |isbn=978-0806117140}}</ref> Riggan provides the following definitions and examples to illustrate his classifications:

;The Pícaro: The first-person narrator of a [[picaresque novel]]; an [[antihero]] serving as "an embodiment of the obstinacy of sin", whose "behavior is marked by rebelliousness", resentment, and aggression, and whose "world view is characterized by resignation and pessimism".{{r|Riggan|p=40-41}} A gap exists between the pícaro's "whimsical and entertaining account and his self-indulgent explanations and morality on the one hand, and the perceptions of the more sensitive author and reader on the other". The pícaro is the "unwitting butt" of this narrative irony.{{r|Riggan|p=42-43}}
:Riggan gives the following examples of pícaro narrators: [[Apuleius]] in ''[[The Golden Ass]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=45}} Lázaro in ''[[Lazarillo de Tormes]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=48}} Guzmán in ''[[Guzmán de Alfarache]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=51}} Don Pablos in ''[[El Buscón]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=54}} Simplicius in [[Simplicius Simplicissimus]];{{r|Riggan|p=57}} Moll in ''[[Moll Flanders]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=61}} Augie March in ''[[The Adventures of Augie March]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=64}} Felix Krull in ''[[Confessions of Felix Krull]]''{{r|Riggan|p=70}}
;The Clown: A narrator in the tradition of the [[Fool (stock character)|fool]], the [[court jester]] and the [[sotie]], whose unreliable narration includes "irony, variations of meaning, ambiguities of definition, and possibilities for reversal and counter-reversal".{{r|Riggan|p=79-83}}
:Riggan gives the following examples of clown narrators: Folly in ''[[In Praise of Folly]]'' {{r|Riggan|p=82}}; Tristram Shandy in ''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=84}} Humbert Humbert in ''[[Lolita]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=89}} Oskar Matzerath in ''[[The Tin Drum]]''{{r|Riggan|p=98}} 
;The Madman: A narrator who is untrustworthy due to an "unbalanced mind" whose narration serves as a case study in the pathology of insanity. The literary madman frequently exhibits traits such as being "insignificant, petty, withdrawn, defensive, dreaming, spiteful, perversely logical, self-deluding, ultimately more of a type than a genuine individual, and a speaker who is soon if not immediately perceived as possessing all these traits and therefore of questionable trustworthiness in the presentation of his own account".{{r|Riggan|p=110}}
:Riggan gives the following examples of madman narrators: Poprishchin in ''[[Diary of a Madman (Nikolai Gogol)|Diary of a Madman]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=111}} the narrator of ''[[Notes from Underground]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=118}} the first person narratives of [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s short stories;{{r|Riggan|p=129}} the narrator of ''[[The Blind Owl]]''{{r|Riggan|p=135}}
;The Naïf: A narrator whose nature is revealed through their own narration and without their conscious awareness.{{r|Riggan|p=158}} The naïf narrator lacks the experience "to deal in any far-reaching manner with the moral, ethical, emotional, and intellectual questions which arise from his first ventures into the world and from his account of those ventures."{{r|Riggan|p=169}}
:Riggan gives the following examples of naïf narrators: [[Huckleberry Finn]] in ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'';{{r|Riggan|p=144}} [[Holden Caulfield]] in ''[[The Catcher in the Rye]]''{{r|Riggan|p=159}}

{{citation needed span|date=November 2023|It remains a matter of debate whether and how a non-first-person narrator can be unreliable, though the deliberate restriction of information to the audience can provide instances of unreliable ''narrative'', even if not necessarily of an unreliable ''narrator''. For example, in the three interweaving plays of [[Alan Ayckbourn]]'s ''[[The Norman Conquests]]'', each confines the action to one of three locations during the course of a weekend.}}

Kathleen Wall argues that in ''[[The Remains of the Day (novel)|The Remains of the Day]]'', for the "unreliability" of the main character (Mr Stevens) as a narrator to work, we need to believe that he describes events reliably, while interpreting them in an unreliable way.<ref>Wall, Kathleen (1994). "The Remains of the Day and Its Challenges to Theories of Unreliable Narration". The Journal of Narrative Technique. 24 (1): 18–42. ISSN 0022-2925. JSTOR 30225397. ProQuest [https://www.proquest.com/docview/1291917995%7C1291917995].</ref>