The method of unreliable narrator as a key to the genre labyrinths of <i>Piranesi</i>

Abstract

The article demonstrates how Susanna Clarke utilises the principally unstable genre attributions in Piranesi to guide the reader to comprehension of the ideas at the core of contemporary European thinking: otherness, the plurality of opinion, truth as a matter of opinion, acceptance of the Self, equality in diversity, and the prerogative of heart over mind. Clarke proceeds with a successful study of human nature through the prism of ‘otherness.’ Starting off with the traditional interpretation of ‘Another’ as alien, Clarke leads the reader towards a more edgy and relevant interpretation of the problem — searching for Oneself in Another and for Another in Oneself. The relativist paradigm in the novel is realised through a polyphony of consciousnesses. Changing voices allow the reader to identify the genre and related philosophical viewpoints in order to test each of them on the novel’s events. Searching for genre-specific keys to Piranesi’s labyrinth, the reader turns to the author for help. However, Clarke chooses the form of an unreliable narrator, modelling the situation with the search for a way out of the labyrinth in real life too.