Judy Doenges: The “Secret Communion” (July 2005)

The world, Judy Doenges points out, is full of unreliable narrators—“government hacks [and] conservative talk show hosts” among them.  In this lecture, Doenges explores the charm and appeal of the unreliable narrator in fiction to readers, who are happy to surrender to the teller of tales.  She gives particular attention to the narrator of Thomas Mann’s Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, arguing that his unreliability humanizes him and cultivates intimacy with the reader.