Receptive shifts and unreliable narrator in the novel "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters

Abstract

The article investigates the figure of unreliable narrator in the novel "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters. The concept of unreliable narration is regarded from the viewpoint of receptive theory taking into account some aspects of genre study. The connection of unreliable narrative with elements and traditions of different genres is revealed. The ambivalent readers’ reaction indicates receptive shift in favor of narrative unreliability as a metafictional mode, which allows combining the use of rhetorical and cognitive-constructivist methods in the research of the analyzed novel.