Gislind Rohwer-Happe
Unreliable Narration im dramatischen Monolog des Viktorianismus
Konzepte und Funktionen
1. Edition 2011
301 pages
ISBN 978-3-89971-899-7
Bonn University Press at V&R unipress
Representations & Reflections -
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This is the first in-depth analysis of an unique poetic genre which places special emphasis on the genre’s distinctive feature, i.e. the use of unreliable narration. Employing narratological frameworks in the analysis of poetry and modifying the markers for unreliable narration, exemplary texts like Alfred Tennyson's „St Simeon Stylites“, Robert Browning's „Porphyria’s Lover“, Augusta Webster's „A Castaway“ and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's „Bertha in the Lane“ will be analysed with regard to the functions of unreliable narration. By confronting the reader with highly idiosyncratic, often subversive characters, the dramatic monologue discusses and elaborates on predominant fears of Victorian society. Despite its status as a new literary genre which makes use of an innovative narrative phenomenon, the progressive character of the dramatic monologue is deceiving, since its aim is not the disruption and distortion of conventions and norms, but the maintenance and preservation of Victorian values.
