Unreliable Narration and the Problem(s) of Interpretation in Under Western Eyes: Razumov’s Text (The Diary) and Conrad’s Text

This paper’s aim is to examine the significance of unreliable narration and problem(s) of interpretation in Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes by taking advantage of Wayne C. Booth’s concept of Unreliable Narrator, Jorg Schonert’s Author, and Wolf Schmid’s Implied Author. The novel, however, opens with Conrad’s emphasis on the fact that the narrative is fictional and accordingly its characters are all created by his own imagination. However, the novel is narrated by a professor of languages who exaggerates on his honesty from the very beginning, and cannot hide his jealousy towards Razumov for the woman he has feelings for ─ Nathalie ─ in his narration. Nevertheless, he claims to be only reading and translating Razumov’s Russian- written diary without any interpretation. Nonetheless, his concern for Nathalie and his hidden enmity with easterners (particularly the Russians) affects his narration. Hence, the reader cannot trust his story. Aware of these facts, the reader comes to doubt the reliability of the professor and reinterprets his/her understanding of the novel through the progression of the reading act. Indeed, the reader comes to the full realization of the narrator’s unreliability in a second or even further reading.