Telling True Lies. Metanarration, Intertextuality and (Un)reliability in Holberg’s Iter subterraneum

Abstract

Abstract Scholarship on Ludvig Holberg’s imaginary voyage Iter subterraneum has noted that the credibility and reliability of both the narrator Klim, and his narration are problematized throughout the text. In doing so, scholars have simplified the text’s narratological structure. This article defamiliarizes the (un)reliability of Klim’s narration by distinguishing three levels in the text: Klim’s intentional discourse, which aims at authenticating the narration, a second level on which the authenticating function of Klim’s discourse is undermined by intertextual links with classical and modern authors, and thirdly, the role of Abeline as the translator of Klim’s text into Latin, which complicates Klim’s reliability even more. These levels and their interactions are explored by a close reading of metanarrative comments in Klim’s discourse, in order to understand the narratological dynamics in Holberg’s text more profoundly and, thereby, to deepen the scholarly view on Klim’s (un)reliability.