narrative point of view |
Working Definition:
Narrative point of view has to do with who tells the story
Disciplinary Definitions:
Point of View FOCUS OF NARRATION ( POINT OF VIEW ): excerpted from Gerald Prince's Dictionary of Narratology
The focus of narration has to do with who tells the story.
We may make four basic distinctions:
(1) a character may tell his own story in the first person
(2) a character may tell, in the first person, a story which he has observed;
(3) the author may tell what happens in the purely objective sense--deeds, words, gestures--without going into the minds of the characters and without giving his own comment;
(4) the author may tell what happens with full liberty to go into the minds of characters and to give his own comment. These four types of narration may be called:(I) first-person,
(2) first-person observer,
(3) author-observer, and
(4) omniscient author.Combinations of these methods are, of course, possible. See pp. 126-128, 266.
first-person narrative situation ...is characterized by a narrator who is a participant in the situations and events recounted (Great Expechbons, Moll Flanders, Lord Jim). ... A type of INTERNAL FOCALIZATION such that one and only one character is the FOCALIZER; a rendering of situations and events in terms of one and only one POINT OF VIEW (The Ambassadors). ... .
central consclousness. FOCALIZER; REFLECTOR; CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE; holder of POINT OF VIEW. The central consciousness is the consciousness through which situations and events are perceived. ...
focalization. The PERSPECTIVE in terms of which the narrated situations and events are presented; the perceptual or conceptual position in terms of which they are rendered ... When such a position varies and is sometimes unlocatable (when no systematic conceptual or perceptual constraint governs what may be presented), the narrative is said to have ZERO FOCALIZATION or to be nonfocalized: zero focalization is characteristic of "traditional" or "classical" narrative (Vanity Fair, Adam Bede) and associated with so-called OMNISCIENT NARRATORS. When such a position is locatable (in one character or another) and entails conceptual or perceptual restrictions (with what is presented being govemed by one character's or another's perspective), the narrative is said to have INTERNAL FOCALIZATION (The Ambassadors, The Age of Reason, The Ring and the Book). Internal focalization can be fixed (when one and only one perspective is adopted: The Ambassadors, What Maisie Knew), variable (when different perspectives are adopted in turn to present different situations and events: The Age of Reason, The Golden Bowl), or multiple (when the same situations and events are presented more than once, each time in temms of a different perspective: The Ring and the Book, The Moonstone, Rashomon). Should what is presented be limited to the characters' external behavior (words and actions but not thoughts or feelings), their appearance, and the seKing against which they come to the fore, EXTERNAL FOCALIZATION is said to obtain ( 'The Killers"). Several narratologists have argued that extemal focalization is characterized not so much by the perspective adopted as by the information provided. Indeed, if a given character's perspective is adopted (intemal focalization), it may well happen that only words and actions but not thoughts or feelings are presented (extemal focalization). In a discussion of this problem, Genette specifies that in the case of external focalization, the FOCALIZER jS situated in the DIEGESIS (diegese) but outside any of the characters.
HETERODIEGETIC NARRATOR limits what s/he tells to the characters' words and actions); (4) omniscient author (a heterodiegetic narrator tells what happens, and s/he has the freedom to enter the characters' minds and to comment on the action). Types 1 and 2 correspond to HOMODIEGETIC NARRATIVES with INTERNAL FOCALIZATION, type 3 to HETERODIEGETIC NARRATIVES with EXTERNAL FOCALIZATION (BEHAVIORIST NARRATIVE, DRAMATIC MODE), and type 4 to HETERODIEGETIC NARRATIVES with ZERO FOCALIZATION (OMNISCIENT NARRATOR).
foreground. That which is focused on, underlined, emphasized; that which comes to the fore against a BACKGROUND. lWeinrich 1964. See also FIGURE, GROUND. toreshadowlng. The technique or device whereby some situation or event is hinted at in advance. For example, should a character manifest extreme sensitivity to color as a child and then become a famous painter, the first event is said to foreshadow the second.
frame. A set of related mental data representing various aspects of reality and enabling human perception and comprehension of these aspects .... A "restaurant" frame, for example, is a network of data pertaining to the parts, function, etc., that restaurants typically have. More generally, NARRATIVE can be considered a frame allowing for certain kinds of organization and understandings of reality. [Frames are often taken to be equivalent to SCHEMATA, PLANS, and SCRIPTS, but certain suggestive distinctions have been proposed: a serially ordered, temporally bound frame is a schema; a goal-directed schema is a plan; and a stereotypical plan is a script. ...
frame narrative . A narrative in which another narrative is embedded; a narrative functioning as a frame for another narrative by providing a seKing for it. In Manon Lescaut, M. de Renoncourt's narrative is a frame narrative. lSee also EMBEDDED NARRATIVE, EMBEDDING, METADIEGETIC NARRATIVE . ...
focalized. The object of FOCALIZATION; the existent or event presented in terms of the FOCALIZER'S perspective. In "Jane saw Peter leaning against the chair. He looked strange to her," Peter is the focalized. llBal 1 977,1 983,1 985; Martin 1 986; Vitoux 1 982.
focalizer. The subject of FOCALIZATION; the holder of POINT OF VIEW; the focal point governing the focalization. In "Jane saw Peter leaning against the chair. He looked strange to her," Jane is the focalizer. ...
focus ot narratlon. The VOICE and POINT OF VIEW goveming the situations and events presented. Brooks and Warren distinguish four NARRATIVE SITUATIONS, four narrational types corresponding to four basic focuses of narration: (1) first-person (a character tells his or her own story); (2) first-person observer (a character tells a story which s/he has observed); (3)author-observer (a HETERODIEGETIC NARRATOR limits what s/he tells to the characters' words and actions); (4) omniscient author (a heterodiegetic narrator tells what happens, and s/he has the freedom to enter the characters' minds and to comment on the action). ...
double focalizatlon. The concurrence of two different FOCALIZATIONS in the rendering of a particular situation or event. lDouble focalization is not infrequently used in film: in Suspicion, for example, when Lina reads the telegram Johnnie sent to tell her that he is going to aKend the Hunt Ball, the end of the reading is shot so as to reflect both her own POINT OF VIEW and the more "objective" point of view of the camera....
external focalization. 1. A type of FOCALIZATION or POINT OF VIEW whereby the information conveyed is mostly limited to what the characters do and say and there is never any direct indication of what they think or feel. External focalization is characteristic of the so-called OBJECTIVE or BEHAVIORIST NARRATIVE ("Hills Like White Elephants"), and one of its consequences is that the NARRATOR tells less than one or several characters know.
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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