HANDING THE REINS TO THE TRICKSTER: A Narratological Analysis of the Construction of Reliability in Joanne M. Harris’ The Gospel of Loki

Abstract

How can a reader believe anything the narrator says when the narrator is an infamous trickster? The Gospel of Loki (2014) tells the Edda-stories from the Norse Trickster God Loki’s viewpoint, providing a unique perspective on the Norse myths. For the presented plot to be valid the narrator has to be trusted to tell the truth; he has to be a reliable narrator. The prevailing understanding of reliability in narratives is that it is equal to the absence of signs of unreliability. Only recently has this theory become opposed, with the suggestion that reliability has signs too. This essay continues the discussion of reliability as something that can be understood on its own basis. The aim of this essay is to demonstrate that a narrator who is initially unreliable can become reliable through the implementation of signs of reliability in the construction of the narrative. It is demonstrated through the application of existing narratological models of reliability, augmented with concepts from the fields of rhetorical studies, meta-narratives, to Loki. In the essay it is shown that reliability can be ascertained through focusing on a few criteria derived from the different approaches.