Unreliability in non-fiction: the case of the unreliable addressee

In this article, I aim to explore unreliability in non-fictional narration. Departing from the widespread conviction that unreliable narration is only possible in fiction, I set out to define the contours of rhetorical approaches to narratology that have paved the way for the discussion of unreliability in non-fiction. I then explore unreliability in relation to non-fictional discourse, especially that found in hybrid genres such as literary documentary and docu-fiction. My argument begins by identifying stylistic criteria as a key element in the assessment of degrees of reliability and unreliability. I then engage questions of the cultural and ethical underpinnings of unreliability judgments by dealing with forms of experimental journalism and with Laurent Binet's documentary novel HHhH, which is discussed as a third-person antithesis to Jonathan Littell's Les Bienveillantes. I conclude by advocating a more addressee-oriented narratology.

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