Abstract The concept of an unreliable third-person narrator may seem a contradiction in terms. The very act of adopting a third-person stance to tell a story would appear to entail an acceptance of a basic need for truth-telling, a commitment to what Wayne Booth terms the implied author’s “norms of the work.” Nonetheless, in the essay that follows, three of Katherine Mansfield’s short stories – “A Cup of Tea” (1922), “Bliss” (1918) and “Revelations” (1920) – will be examined in order to demonstrate how the strategic suppression of the distinction between the voice of the narrator and that of the central character can lead to a strong sense of unreliability. In order to read such narratives effectively, the reader must reappraise the value of certain other stylistic elements, including the use of directives involved with directly quoted speech, seemingly minor discrepancies between adjacent sentences and, perhaps most importantly, the structure of the fiction itself. We contend that Mansfield’s use of this form of unreliable third-person fiction is her unique contribution to the short story genre.

中文翻译：

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不可靠的第三人称叙述？凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德案

摘要不可靠的第三人称叙述者的概念在术语上似乎是矛盾的。采用第三人称的姿态讲故事的行为似乎意味着要接受对讲真话的基本需求，即对韦恩·布斯所说的隐含作者的“作品规范”的承诺。但是，在接下来的文章中，将研究凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德的三个短篇小说：“一杯茶”（1922年），“布里斯”（1918年）和“启示”（1920年），以展示如何进行战略压制。叙述者的声音与中心人物的声音之间的区别可能导致强烈的不可靠感。为了有效地阅读此类叙述，读者必须重新评估某些其他文体元素的价值，包括使用与直接引用的语音相关的指令，相邻句子之间的看似微小的差异，也许最重要的是小说本身的结构之间的差异。我们认为，曼斯菲尔德对这种不可靠的第三人称小说的使用是她对短篇小说体裁的独特贡献。