Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the intertwined relationship between narrative reliability and racial conflicts and ideologies. It argues that the problem of reliability in narrative fiction often makes use of the problem of reliability in historical discourse. The book explores the critical perspective of postcolonial studies in that it analyzes the discourses that establish hierarchies of power relations based on current or former colonial dominions and contexts. It addresses paratexts, genre, and narrative versions as underestimated factors in the questioning of narrative reliability. The book describes polyphony, narrative progression, and narrative enigmas in the building of narrative reliability. It focuses on first-person narratives, character-narrator construction, and a problematic selection of events in relation to a colonial conflict. The book aims to show that the relationship between history and narrative is tighter than is commonly assumed in narrative theory.