Contractual Unreliable Narration and Alienation Unreliable Narration of A Pale View of Hills

A Pale View of Hills is a famous novel written by the British contemporary Japanese novelist Ishiguro Kazuo. The narrative of the novel is not reliable. Previous studies on the unreliable narration of novels are based on the unreliable narration theory of Booth, which explains the relationship between the narrator and the author. This kind of interpretation is slightly partial. Phelan’s theory increases the reader’s dimension in unreliable narration, which can be divided into two types: contract unreliable narration and alienation unreliable narration. On this basis, the paper analyzes the dynamic process of the narrator, the author and the reader in the two types unreliable narration, and explains the important significance of unreliable narration to novels’ theme expressions.