![]() I think he has a point, although I'd talk more in terms, again, of claustrophobia, because the subjective point of view allows for nothing - no feeling or experience - beyond the individual.ĮXTERNAL NARRATORS (i): switching between limited points of view Above all, the drawback is what John Gardner suggests: this limited-subjective viewpoint has a "pettiness and unseemly familiarity" which he finds frustrating as well as unattractive. The problems are the same too, though: plot-difficulties, limitations of voice and setting, and an overall narrowness. Writers often choose to work with a third-person narrative with a limited point of view, instead of first-person, because it adds a little flexibility: it's natural to pull a little bit further out in psychic distance, where you need to, towards something more neutral and "god's-eye-view", which is why this kind of narrator is said to have "limited omniscience", and can mention the weather, for example, even when the character might not specially notice it, or fill in a bit of background knowledge or geography. An internal character-narrator, and an external narrative limited to one point of view, are so similar that when I have a student whose third-person narrative seems rather distant and flat, I often suggest re-working in a bit in first person, because getting closer in psychic distance often comes more naturally in first person they can then switching the pronouns back from "I" to "he", to discover how to get close in third person. You could pretty much write this in first person and just switch the pronouns, and it would have all the same advantages of reducing the options to something manageable. So, assuming you do want your narrative to take on at least one subjective point of view, how many might you, the storyteller, choose to let the narrator narrate from?ĮXTERNAL NARRATORS (i): one limited point of viewĪs with an internal character-narrator, even if you have an external narrator it may seem easiest to limit it to a single point of view of a single character: nothing is told or known except what that character knows and experiences. That's much the most common kind of narrative, because the normal project of fiction in our culture is to admit us to characters' minds and feelings until we're convinced by them: until we feel that these characters-in-action are real. If the narrator does give us access to individual characters' thoughts and perceptions of what's going on - shows us the world through characters' eyes and minds, and perhaps with their voices colouring the narrative - then it's called subjective point of view. That effect is partly the result of what John Gardner in The Art of Fiction describes as the "savage sparsity" of this kind of narrative. ![]() Hemingway's story "Hills Like White Elephants" is a classic example, although as that Jauss article points out, he twice breaks the "rule" of objectivity, to immensely powerful effect. We're told nothing of what characters think or feel: nothing of the inside of their heads or bodies. 'Dramatic', that is, in the sense that it tells nothing that the audience of a play couldn't see: dialogue, setting, and physical action. This objective point of view is sometimes (and perhaps more usefully) called dramatic point of view. And it's up to you whether the narrator can tell things that no character in the story knows.Īnd, of course, that also means that the narration may not enter any individual consciousnesses. But, of course, it's up to the storyteller - you - which consciousnesses you allow the narrator to lead the reader inside. Evelyn was thinking about seducing Alex, while on the other side of town Joanna was planning to seduce Evelyn. Part One: the basics is here, and Part Two: internal narrators is here.Ī narrator who isn't a character in the story will tell everything in third person, because as an "I" they're not present in the events. This is Part Three of a four-part series.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |