The First-Person Narration and Ethics of Alterity in "Tell Me Who to Kill"

This article explores the first-person narration and the ethics of alterity in Naipaul's story "Tell Me Who to Kill." It argues that readers are called upon to comprehend the emerging alterity in their encounter with the racial other; on the other hand, the textual recalcitrance imman...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:South Asian review (South Asian Literary Association) 2013-10, Vol.34 (2), p.63-77
Main Author: Zhang, Dexu
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:This article explores the first-person narration and the ethics of alterity in Naipaul's story "Tell Me Who to Kill." It argues that readers are called upon to comprehend the emerging alterity in their encounter with the racial other; on the other hand, the textual recalcitrance immanent to the unreliable first-person narration precludes the possibility of readers' arriving at the alterity of the other and thus keeps alive the uncanny otherness. Given the two-fold reading effect, readers are invited to develop sympathy on the story level, and at the same time to identify the ethical import that underpins its textual construct on the narrative level.
ISSN:0275-9527
2573-9476
DOI:10.1080/02759527.2013.11932929