that rhetorical theory can productively complement the conclusions of the
postcolonial and cosmopolitan critics and that Lahiri’s practice can further
illuminate the synergies of narrative communication. I start by offering a rhe-
torical account of reliable narration.
FROM UNRELIABLE TO RELIABLE CHARACTER NARRATION
In discussions of character narration, reliable narration has served primar-
ily as unreliability’s unexamined Other. Since Wayne C. Booth distinguished
the two kinds of narration in The Rhetoric of Fiction by saying that a narrator
is “reliable when he speaks for or acts in accordance with the norms of the
work (which is to say, the implied author’s norms), unreliable when he does
not” (Rhetoric, 158–59), theorists have devoted their attention to the devil-
ish delights of unreliability. But the rhetorical principle that authors deploy
resources in different ways for different effects points to the value of taking a
closer look at reliability. Just as the rhetorical perspective leads to the under-
standing of unreliable narration as having various subtypes capable of gener-
ating effects along the spectrum from bonding to estranging, so too does the
approach lead to a recognition that reliable narration is a more varied and
nuanced resource than previous narrative theory has acknowledged. These
conclusions, in turn, suggest that we should move toward thinking of unreli-
ability and reliability as existing along a continuum rather than as clear binary
opposites.
The essence of reliable character narration is the implied author’s commu-
nicating reports, interpretations, or evaluations that she endorses through the
filter of an ontologically distinct character. Authors adopt such filters because
anchoring the reporting, interpreting, and evaluating functions of narration in
the perspective and experiences of an actor in the storyworld can increase the
thematic, affective, and ethical force and significance of the whole narrative.
Just how authors adopt those screens can vary from one occasion to the next
precisely because authors may give more or less prominence to the character
narrator as filter and may use the teller’s functions of reporting, interpreting,
and evaluating in different combinations—sometimes one may be prominent,
sometimes two, and sometimes all three. The effects of any instance of reli-
able narration will then depend to a large degree on the specific interaction
of the thickness of the character narrator filter with the particular narrating
function(s). Keeping this principle in mind, I still find it useful to group indi-
vidual instances into three main subtypes: restricted narration, convergent
218 • CHAPTER 1 1