First-Person Paralepsis as Narratorial Invention: Desiderio’s Impossible Knowledge, Reliability, and Narrative Authority

This article focuses on the unnatural narration in Angela Carter's novel The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman and addresses the issue of how to make sense of it. Drawing upon unnatural narratology, it examines the first-person narrator Desiderio's paralepsis, i.e. how he violates the mimetic rules of first-person narration by presenting knowledge that should be inaccessible to him. In terms of interpretation, the study first evaluates two options – the naturalizing one that reads Desiderio as an unreliable narrator and the unnaturalizing one that foregrounds the nonrepresentative nature of the narrative – and identifies their respective deficiencies. It further proposes a form of naturalization that sees first-person narration as modeled on the genre of novel and attributes Desiderio's paralepsis to his narratorial invention. It is argued that in coming to terms with the narrator's omniscient qualities, we should duly consider his characterological motivation and overall performance of narrative authority. Desiderio's assumption of competencies that he does not properly have in fact reflects a desire for control and mastery over his life.