1. Narrator
The Narrator is the speaker or the voice of the literary text, the agent who does the narration. The narrator, like any character in fiction, only exists in a narrative, and he cannot be identified with anything of the real-life author of a literary work.
The author does not appear in the novel in any form. He does not have a voice, neither any direct way of communication, but he silently guides the reader through his complete design of the novel.
2. Principles of judgment by the narrator
It is the narrator that represents the principles of judgment:
He either conceals or reveals the thoughts and feelings of characters, enabling the reader to be aware of his psychological opinion about them;
He chooses whether to make the character speak directly or to relate the narrative from another one’s mouth;
He makes the decision whether to employ description, exposition, comment, or narration in his manipulation of a certain event;
And he also decides to narrate an event in accord with chronological sequence or intentionally reverse the order.
3. Five fictions of a narrator clarified by Gerard Genette (Narrative Discourse)
Narrating function (the telling of the story as such);
Directing function (metalinguistic, internal organization of the narrative);
Function of communication (conveying of message aiming at opening and maintaining the channel of communication and at seeking to affect the behavior of the addressee);
Testimonial function (aiming at an expression of the narrator’s attitude towards what he is speaking about);
Ideological function (a didactic form of an authorized commentary on the action);
Didactic adj. intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive
Commentary n. the expression of opinions or offering of explanations about an event or situation
4. Point of View
To identify the narrator of a story, describing any part he/she plays in the events and any limits placed upon his/her knowledge, is to identify the story’s point of view: the way in which the reader is presented the material of the story, and the vantage point from which the author presents the actions of the story.
In a short story, it is usual for the author to maintain one point of view form beginning to end, but there is nothing to stop him/her from introducing other points of view as well. In a novel, it is quite common for the author to shift form one point of view to anther.
Vantage (point) n. a position from which you watch sth; a point in time or a situation from which you consider sth, especially the past
5. Percy Lubbock’s Proposition of Point of View
Lubbock thinks that all techniques of the novel are bound to be adjusted by point of view, that is, “Who speaks?” and “Who sees?” The term has two senses.
First, it resembles the point of view in visual arts, namely, from which angle and at which position the spectator looks at an object under observation. Similarly, in a literary work, the author regulates the positions of the reader in accordance with what he/she expresses or what he/she intends to express. This regulation includes both spacial and temporal location: the author may place the narrator as far as a thousand miles away or as near as in front of the reader. The author may arrange the narrator as a historical figure or as a witness of a current event.
The second sense of point of view lies in the attitude towards the presented objects. A narrative text is always composed of language, and language does not allow us to talk about something without expressing our attitude towards it. Therefore the point of view the narrator adopts in his/her narration of an event or in his/her description of a character of an object is a cue for the reader to discern his/her attitude.
Discern v. to know, recognize, or understand sth that not obvious
6. Four Aspects of Point of View by Wallace Martin
(1) Point of view is a prescribed characteristic of narrative, that is, where there is narrative, there is point of view, and it is regarded as an important aspect of communication from the author to the reader;
Prescribed adj. telling people how a language should be used, rather than describing how it is used
(2) The term refers generally to all the aspects concerning the relationship between the narrator and the reader, including details of attention, distance, angle of vision, voice, and focalization;
(3) Point of view is not something subsidiary added to, say, plot, but in contrary, it is point of view that creates interest, conflict, suspense, and even plot itself in most modern narrative works;
(4) Point of view constitutes a person’s attitude towards, opinion about, and concern for the world.
7. A list of terms made by Kennedy and Gioia
The first person narrator (a participant)
A major character
A minor character
The third person narrator (a nonparticipant in the story)
All-knowing (seeing into any of the characters) [1]
Seeing into one major character [2]
Seeing into one minor character
Objective (not seeing into any character) [3]
[1] When all-knowing (or omniscient), the narrator sees into the minds of all (or some) of the characters, revealing their thoughts and feelings whenever he believes necessary.
Sometimes he makes a comment or adds his opinion. In this case, the narrator is said to show editorial omniscience.
But when he only presents the thoughts and feelings and actions of the characters but does not judge them or comment on them, he is said to show impartial omniscience.
Such a point of view is characterized by a freedom in shifting from the exterior world to the inner selves of the characters, in movement in both time and place, and in making comment on the meaning of action.
[2] When a non participant narrator sees event through the eyes of a single character, whether a major character or a minor one, the author is using a limited point of view, sometimes called selective omniscience or limited omniscience.
(Some critics think that the first person narrative also belongs to this category since the point of view is confined to the first person narrator knows and experiences.)
[3] When the narrator does not see into the mind of any character, nor makes any comment on any action or character, but only describes or account the events of the story from the outside, the author employs the objective point of view.
In this case, the reader reads a story as if he/she is watching the performance of a play in which there is no soliloquy, nor aside: the narrator merely retells what the characters say and how they act objectively, leaving the reader to infer their thoughts and feelings.
So inconspicuous is the narrator that this point of view is compared to “the fly on the wall” and the reader hardly notices the existence of the narrator. (Some critics call this mode of narrative “dramatic presentation”.)
The objective point of view leaves a large room for the reader’s intelligence and judgment.
8. The Advantages & Disadvantages of the First Person Narrative
The use of the “I” narrator has its advantages. For instance, it enables the author to enter the protagonist’s mind quite naturally and thus reveal his/her most secret thoughts and feelings to the reader through interior monologue, stream of consciousness, and other techniques.
But similarly, its disadvantage is that the psychological life of other characters in the story will remain less clear to the reader.
9. The Third Person Narrative
The most frequently and naturally employed narrative is the third person narrative, in which the narrator remains outside the story. The narrator refers directly to the characters by their names or by personal pronoun (they/them, he/him, she/her) respectively.
10. The Disadvantages and Advantages of the Third Person Narrative
The third person narrator, unlike the first person narrator who can only reveal his/her own mind and feeling to the public, can enter the mind and reveal the thoughts and feelings of any character and make any comment on them as he/she likes.
Most novelists employ this form of narrative since it can endow them with the privilege of omniscience: in modern times many novelists and storytellers have begun to employ a narrator who seems so impartial and aloof that she/he limits him/herself to reporting only overheard conversation and to describing without comment or opinion, the surface appearances of things. In the view of Wayne C. Booth, such distant narrators can be dispensed with in dealing with an impersonal “fly-on-the-wall” story, containing no editorializing and confined to the presentation of surface. (The Rhetoric of Fiction)
Aloof adj. not friendly or interested in sth
11. Innocent Narrator or Naïve Narrator
Only by identifying the point of view of a story are we likely to discern the attitude and opinion of the narrator, which is helpful to a deep understanding of the story. However, the attitude and opinion of the narrator are not necessarily those of the author, though the author may choose t communicate his or her own opinions through the mouth of the narrator.
A story may be told by an innocent narrator or a naïve narrator, who does not comprehend all the complexities and complications of the story.
12. Reliable Narrator and Unreliable Narrator
In a story told by an unreliable narrator, the point of view is that of a person who is deceptive, self-deceptive, deluded, or deranged.
Whether a narrator is reliable or unreliable, according to Wayne Booth depends upon how the narrator argues for, and how near the attitude and opinion of the narrator are to, the moral codes of the work (including those of the author).
We distinguish an unreliable narrator by the extent to which he/she diverges from the author’s attitude and opinion, and by the violations he commits against the author’s moral codes.
Rimmon-Kenan discusses the reliable narrator and the unreliable narrator as a relationship between the narrator and the reader:
A reliable narrator is characterized by the fact that his narrative is always regarded by the reader as the authoritative description of fictional truth.
An unreliable narrator is characterized by the fact that that his description of and/or comment on the story always makes the reader plausibly suspicious, whether because the narrator is limited in his knowledge or he himself is involved in the event or there is something wrong with his value system.
However, we may find that in many literary works it is difficult to determine whether their narrators are reliable or unreliable and, of the “reliable” ones, the true degree of their reliability. Modern writers have been particular fond of narrators of unknown reliability, as though they are attempting to communicate a sense of uncertainty of the modern world.
Deceptive adj. giving an appearance or impression different from the true one; misleading
Deluded adj. making (someone) believe something false
Deranged adj. making insane
Diverge v. (of an opinion or approach) differ
Plausible adj. apparently reasonable or probable, without necessarily being so
13. Verbal Irony
Verbal irony implies a contrast or discrepancy between what is said literally and what is meant actually. Its presence is marked by a sort of grim humor and unemotional detachment on the part of the speaker, a tone of coolness in expression at a time when the speaker’s emotions appear to be really heated.
The effectiveness of irony as a literary device is the impression of restraint it gives. Irony, of course, is more easily detected in speech than in writing, since the voice can, through its intonation easily warn the listener of a double significance. Thus in reading fiction, it is advisable for us to keep an eye upon the “tone” of the speaker, or the narrator, so as to detect any ironic touch.
Discrepancy n. a difference or lack of compatibility between two or more facts that should be similar
Grim adj. (of humor) black or ironic
Detachment n. the state of being objective or aloof
Restraint n. the action of restraining (prevent from doing sth, keep within limits)
14. Ironic Point of View
An entire story may be told from an ironic point of view. Whenever we sense a sharp distinction between the narrator of a story and the author, irony is likely to occur—especially when the narrator is telling us something that we are clearly expected to doubt or to interpret very differently.
Writers are sometimes fond of ironic twists of fate—developments of plot that reveal a terrible distance between what people deserve and what they get, between what is and what ought to be. It suggests that some malicious fate is deliberately frustrating human efforts, as if frequently happens in reality.
The Narrator is the speaker or the voice of the literary text, the agent who does the narration. The narrator, like any character in fiction, only exists in a narrative, and he cannot be identified with anything of the real-life author of a literary work.
The author does not appear in the novel in any form. He does not have a voice, neither any direct way of communication, but he silently guides the reader through his complete design of the novel.
2. Principles of judgment by the narrator
It is the narrator that represents the principles of judgment:
He either conceals or reveals the thoughts and feelings of characters, enabling the reader to be aware of his psychological opinion about them;
He chooses whether to make the character speak directly or to relate the narrative from another one’s mouth;
He makes the decision whether to employ description, exposition, comment, or narration in his manipulation of a certain event;
And he also decides to narrate an event in accord with chronological sequence or intentionally reverse the order.
3. Five fictions of a narrator clarified by Gerard Genette (Narrative Discourse)
Narrating function (the telling of the story as such);
Directing function (metalinguistic, internal organization of the narrative);
Function of communication (conveying of message aiming at opening and maintaining the channel of communication and at seeking to affect the behavior of the addressee);
Testimonial function (aiming at an expression of the narrator’s attitude towards what he is speaking about);
Ideological function (a didactic form of an authorized commentary on the action);
Didactic adj. intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive
Commentary n. the expression of opinions or offering of explanations about an event or situation
4. Point of View
To identify the narrator of a story, describing any part he/she plays in the events and any limits placed upon his/her knowledge, is to identify the story’s point of view: the way in which the reader is presented the material of the story, and the vantage point from which the author presents the actions of the story.
In a short story, it is usual for the author to maintain one point of view form beginning to end, but there is nothing to stop him/her from introducing other points of view as well. In a novel, it is quite common for the author to shift form one point of view to anther.
Vantage (point) n. a position from which you watch sth; a point in time or a situation from which you consider sth, especially the past
5. Percy Lubbock’s Proposition of Point of View
Lubbock thinks that all techniques of the novel are bound to be adjusted by point of view, that is, “Who speaks?” and “Who sees?” The term has two senses.
First, it resembles the point of view in visual arts, namely, from which angle and at which position the spectator looks at an object under observation. Similarly, in a literary work, the author regulates the positions of the reader in accordance with what he/she expresses or what he/she intends to express. This regulation includes both spacial and temporal location: the author may place the narrator as far as a thousand miles away or as near as in front of the reader. The author may arrange the narrator as a historical figure or as a witness of a current event.
The second sense of point of view lies in the attitude towards the presented objects. A narrative text is always composed of language, and language does not allow us to talk about something without expressing our attitude towards it. Therefore the point of view the narrator adopts in his/her narration of an event or in his/her description of a character of an object is a cue for the reader to discern his/her attitude.
Discern v. to know, recognize, or understand sth that not obvious
6. Four Aspects of Point of View by Wallace Martin
(1) Point of view is a prescribed characteristic of narrative, that is, where there is narrative, there is point of view, and it is regarded as an important aspect of communication from the author to the reader;
Prescribed adj. telling people how a language should be used, rather than describing how it is used
(2) The term refers generally to all the aspects concerning the relationship between the narrator and the reader, including details of attention, distance, angle of vision, voice, and focalization;
(3) Point of view is not something subsidiary added to, say, plot, but in contrary, it is point of view that creates interest, conflict, suspense, and even plot itself in most modern narrative works;
(4) Point of view constitutes a person’s attitude towards, opinion about, and concern for the world.
7. A list of terms made by Kennedy and Gioia
The first person narrator (a participant)
A major character
A minor character
The third person narrator (a nonparticipant in the story)
All-knowing (seeing into any of the characters) [1]
Seeing into one major character [2]
Seeing into one minor character
Objective (not seeing into any character) [3]
[1] When all-knowing (or omniscient), the narrator sees into the minds of all (or some) of the characters, revealing their thoughts and feelings whenever he believes necessary.
Sometimes he makes a comment or adds his opinion. In this case, the narrator is said to show editorial omniscience.
But when he only presents the thoughts and feelings and actions of the characters but does not judge them or comment on them, he is said to show impartial omniscience.
Such a point of view is characterized by a freedom in shifting from the exterior world to the inner selves of the characters, in movement in both time and place, and in making comment on the meaning of action.
[2] When a non participant narrator sees event through the eyes of a single character, whether a major character or a minor one, the author is using a limited point of view, sometimes called selective omniscience or limited omniscience.
(Some critics think that the first person narrative also belongs to this category since the point of view is confined to the first person narrator knows and experiences.)
[3] When the narrator does not see into the mind of any character, nor makes any comment on any action or character, but only describes or account the events of the story from the outside, the author employs the objective point of view.
In this case, the reader reads a story as if he/she is watching the performance of a play in which there is no soliloquy, nor aside: the narrator merely retells what the characters say and how they act objectively, leaving the reader to infer their thoughts and feelings.
So inconspicuous is the narrator that this point of view is compared to “the fly on the wall” and the reader hardly notices the existence of the narrator. (Some critics call this mode of narrative “dramatic presentation”.)
The objective point of view leaves a large room for the reader’s intelligence and judgment.
8. The Advantages & Disadvantages of the First Person Narrative
The use of the “I” narrator has its advantages. For instance, it enables the author to enter the protagonist’s mind quite naturally and thus reveal his/her most secret thoughts and feelings to the reader through interior monologue, stream of consciousness, and other techniques.
But similarly, its disadvantage is that the psychological life of other characters in the story will remain less clear to the reader.
9. The Third Person Narrative
The most frequently and naturally employed narrative is the third person narrative, in which the narrator remains outside the story. The narrator refers directly to the characters by their names or by personal pronoun (they/them, he/him, she/her) respectively.
10. The Disadvantages and Advantages of the Third Person Narrative
The third person narrator, unlike the first person narrator who can only reveal his/her own mind and feeling to the public, can enter the mind and reveal the thoughts and feelings of any character and make any comment on them as he/she likes.
Most novelists employ this form of narrative since it can endow them with the privilege of omniscience: in modern times many novelists and storytellers have begun to employ a narrator who seems so impartial and aloof that she/he limits him/herself to reporting only overheard conversation and to describing without comment or opinion, the surface appearances of things. In the view of Wayne C. Booth, such distant narrators can be dispensed with in dealing with an impersonal “fly-on-the-wall” story, containing no editorializing and confined to the presentation of surface. (The Rhetoric of Fiction)
Aloof adj. not friendly or interested in sth
11. Innocent Narrator or Naïve Narrator
Only by identifying the point of view of a story are we likely to discern the attitude and opinion of the narrator, which is helpful to a deep understanding of the story. However, the attitude and opinion of the narrator are not necessarily those of the author, though the author may choose t communicate his or her own opinions through the mouth of the narrator.
A story may be told by an innocent narrator or a naïve narrator, who does not comprehend all the complexities and complications of the story.
12. Reliable Narrator and Unreliable Narrator
In a story told by an unreliable narrator, the point of view is that of a person who is deceptive, self-deceptive, deluded, or deranged.
Whether a narrator is reliable or unreliable, according to Wayne Booth depends upon how the narrator argues for, and how near the attitude and opinion of the narrator are to, the moral codes of the work (including those of the author).
We distinguish an unreliable narrator by the extent to which he/she diverges from the author’s attitude and opinion, and by the violations he commits against the author’s moral codes.
Rimmon-Kenan discusses the reliable narrator and the unreliable narrator as a relationship between the narrator and the reader:
A reliable narrator is characterized by the fact that his narrative is always regarded by the reader as the authoritative description of fictional truth.
An unreliable narrator is characterized by the fact that that his description of and/or comment on the story always makes the reader plausibly suspicious, whether because the narrator is limited in his knowledge or he himself is involved in the event or there is something wrong with his value system.
However, we may find that in many literary works it is difficult to determine whether their narrators are reliable or unreliable and, of the “reliable” ones, the true degree of their reliability. Modern writers have been particular fond of narrators of unknown reliability, as though they are attempting to communicate a sense of uncertainty of the modern world.
Deceptive adj. giving an appearance or impression different from the true one; misleading
Deluded adj. making (someone) believe something false
Deranged adj. making insane
Diverge v. (of an opinion or approach) differ
Plausible adj. apparently reasonable or probable, without necessarily being so
13. Verbal Irony
Verbal irony implies a contrast or discrepancy between what is said literally and what is meant actually. Its presence is marked by a sort of grim humor and unemotional detachment on the part of the speaker, a tone of coolness in expression at a time when the speaker’s emotions appear to be really heated.
The effectiveness of irony as a literary device is the impression of restraint it gives. Irony, of course, is more easily detected in speech than in writing, since the voice can, through its intonation easily warn the listener of a double significance. Thus in reading fiction, it is advisable for us to keep an eye upon the “tone” of the speaker, or the narrator, so as to detect any ironic touch.
Discrepancy n. a difference or lack of compatibility between two or more facts that should be similar
Grim adj. (of humor) black or ironic
Detachment n. the state of being objective or aloof
Restraint n. the action of restraining (prevent from doing sth, keep within limits)
14. Ironic Point of View
An entire story may be told from an ironic point of view. Whenever we sense a sharp distinction between the narrator of a story and the author, irony is likely to occur—especially when the narrator is telling us something that we are clearly expected to doubt or to interpret very differently.
Writers are sometimes fond of ironic twists of fate—developments of plot that reveal a terrible distance between what people deserve and what they get, between what is and what ought to be. It suggests that some malicious fate is deliberately frustrating human efforts, as if frequently happens in reality.
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