"Self-criticism of the word" in Graham Greene's novel "The Quiet American"

the article analyzes Graham Greene's novel "The Quiet American" (1955) as a metaprose text, the central issue of which is the exploration of the possibilities and limitations of writing in its relation to reality. The study argues that the novel consistently implements the "self-criticism of the word" – a key concept in M.M. Bakhtin's poetics – by reflecting on various discursive practices (news reporting, political treatise, poetry, private correspondence) and demonstrating their inadequacy or bias in attempting to adequately represent the complex political and cultural reality of Vietnam. The conflict between the main characters, the English journalist Fowler and the American diplomat Pyle, is interpreted not only as ideological or personal but also as epistemological: it reveals the contradiction between cynical disbelief in the representational potential of the text and its idealization.

Graham Greene, "The Quiet American", self-criticism of the word, discourse, representation, novel, writing, Vietnam, orientalism