Writing Help 129 | - ☆ Freelance Writer
Apr 05, 2013 | #1
Terms You Need for Writing about the Novel
Although I prefer the somewhat more complex though far more thorough and descriptive narrative categories described by the term diegetic level, point of view is a good introduction to the same idea, and is an absolute staple of high school and college English classrooms. We must be careful not to confuse the literary idea point of view with the everyday definition we have of the term. We often use point of view to describe our beliefs and opinions in general, or on a given matter, as in the sentence "From my point of view, the war in Iraq is unjustifiable." We can use this the same way in literature, especially if we are describing the opinions of a given character, but as a technical literary term about the working of a novel itself, it has a more specific application.
The point of view of a novel is a description of how the author has positioned the storytelling agent, and what powers this agent has been given. It is important to remember that, from the perspective of literary studies, a novel is related to the reader not through the author directly, but rather through what is known as the narrator. If you claim in a college essay that the author states something, and then quote from the novel, your professor is very likely to scratch out author and put narrator in its place. Some scholars believe that contact with the author does not have to be seen as always completely mediated through a narrator, but the dominant school suggests that it does.
So, every novel has a narrator, and the first term used to describe this entity is a grammatical one, having to do with the person telling the tale. Grammatical person can be either first-person, second-person, or third-person, and all of these can be either singular or plural. Put most simply, first person singular is an I narrator, plural we; second person you, plural you; third person he, she, or it, plural they. In terms of the novel, the most common person for narration is the third, followed closely by first, and quite distantly by second. Because almost all novels are told by a single being, the singular forms are dominant to the point where the plural would be considered puzzling. After all, when is the last time you read a novel where the narrator referred to themselves as we throughout?
Each of these points of view has properties which make it distinct from the others, and which creates given effects on the novel and its reception. Beginning with the third-person, we can see that this is the most objective point of view. The narrator here is usually a disembodied force which is completely outside the action of the story and even the world of the story. These narrators usually attempt to make themselves as unobtrusive as possible, and exist only as devices through which the story is presented. They can be omniscient, which means that they have unlimited knowledge about the world of the story, as well as the ability to reveal the thoughts and feelings of any character they like, jumping in and out of different heads at will. Alternatively, a third-person narrator may be limited, meaning that although the narrator is not in the story (I is not used in the narration), the information we receive emanates primarily from the thoughts and experiences of a single character or a small group of characters. Any information we get is information that would also be available to this character or group, and although the narrator is free to range outside this perspective (and such mixes of omniscience with a limited perspective are not uncommon), she remains for the most part within it.
The effect created through the use of third-person narration varies widely, depending on the level of omniscience of the narrator and the goals of the author. This flexibility is one of the reasons why so many authors choose and have chosen this point of view, and why the first-person, while popular, has not been able to surpass it. The third-person can be combined with total omniscience and very formal diction to create a work that is very serious, even solemn and religious in tone. Because this narrator is virtually without personality or defining characteristics, pronouncements come from it (its gender is usually indefinable as well) as fact, as objective descriptions of the story world. The third-person limited point of view allows the author to bring the reader closer to a given character, and this is often accompanied by a less formal tone, as well as the liberal use of free indirect discourse (a device that we will be exploring in a future article). The author can vary these elements to create a more or less formal tone, and can employ it skillfully to selectively limit the information we receive, setting up opportunities for suspense and surprise.
The first-person narrator is the next most popular choice, and this point of view is always limited to some extent. Although the first-person narrator is always a member of the story world, he or she can be more or less integral to the unfolding action; first-person narrators can be protagonists, or they can be observers distant from the tales they are telling. Although we will get into the finer gradations in a future article, the most common type of first-person narrator is as the center of their own tale, and the audience is able to feel a closeness to this narrator that is far more difficult to achieve in third-person narration. It is as if you are being told a tale by someone you know (after all, who else would talk to you for several straight hours without interruption?), and you are very likely to identify with this narrator since you are being given the details of the world through their consciousness and through their filters. It is also possible for such a narrator to be self-serving and obviously biased in their telling of events, and unreliable narrators (covered in a previous article) are most likely to come from this type.
The final option for narrative person is the second-person, but this has not developed a following to any significant degree. Here, the narrator uses you as the narrating perspective, but for obvious reasons, this is more difficult to sustain over a long period of time. After all, you know that you are not the source of this story you are reading, and thus the effect can be somewhat puzzling. It can be used in a more limited fashion, as it is through brief sections of Timothy Findlay's The Wars, and it is a mainstay of role-playing game-books, where the reader makes choices which determine how the story will unfold. When it works, the use of this point of view draws the reader in completely, insisting on immersion in the action of the story, as well as encouraging significant identification.
Note that tense is another aspect of point of view that can change the flavor of the way a story is told. The most common is the past tense, and this makes sense since it seems most natural to tell a story after the story has occurred. The use of the present tense is uncommon, but it does appear in the novel, and it is standard in the rare cases of second-person narration. It is frequently employed in dream sequences or other imaginative recreations within the main narrative point of view, and it adds a sense of immediacy and unpredictability that can be effective, again in small doses. The future tense, while possible, has to my knowledge been limited to experimental fiction, and you are unlikely to encounter it in a narrative point of view.
Point of View
Although I prefer the somewhat more complex though far more thorough and descriptive narrative categories described by the term diegetic level, point of view is a good introduction to the same idea, and is an absolute staple of high school and college English classrooms. We must be careful not to confuse the literary idea point of view with the everyday definition we have of the term. We often use point of view to describe our beliefs and opinions in general, or on a given matter, as in the sentence "From my point of view, the war in Iraq is unjustifiable." We can use this the same way in literature, especially if we are describing the opinions of a given character, but as a technical literary term about the working of a novel itself, it has a more specific application.
The point of view of a novel is a description of how the author has positioned the storytelling agent, and what powers this agent has been given. It is important to remember that, from the perspective of literary studies, a novel is related to the reader not through the author directly, but rather through what is known as the narrator. If you claim in a college essay that the author states something, and then quote from the novel, your professor is very likely to scratch out author and put narrator in its place. Some scholars believe that contact with the author does not have to be seen as always completely mediated through a narrator, but the dominant school suggests that it does.So, every novel has a narrator, and the first term used to describe this entity is a grammatical one, having to do with the person telling the tale. Grammatical person can be either first-person, second-person, or third-person, and all of these can be either singular or plural. Put most simply, first person singular is an I narrator, plural we; second person you, plural you; third person he, she, or it, plural they. In terms of the novel, the most common person for narration is the third, followed closely by first, and quite distantly by second. Because almost all novels are told by a single being, the singular forms are dominant to the point where the plural would be considered puzzling. After all, when is the last time you read a novel where the narrator referred to themselves as we throughout?
Each of these points of view has properties which make it distinct from the others, and which creates given effects on the novel and its reception. Beginning with the third-person, we can see that this is the most objective point of view. The narrator here is usually a disembodied force which is completely outside the action of the story and even the world of the story. These narrators usually attempt to make themselves as unobtrusive as possible, and exist only as devices through which the story is presented. They can be omniscient, which means that they have unlimited knowledge about the world of the story, as well as the ability to reveal the thoughts and feelings of any character they like, jumping in and out of different heads at will. Alternatively, a third-person narrator may be limited, meaning that although the narrator is not in the story (I is not used in the narration), the information we receive emanates primarily from the thoughts and experiences of a single character or a small group of characters. Any information we get is information that would also be available to this character or group, and although the narrator is free to range outside this perspective (and such mixes of omniscience with a limited perspective are not uncommon), she remains for the most part within it.
The effect created through the use of third-person narration varies widely, depending on the level of omniscience of the narrator and the goals of the author. This flexibility is one of the reasons why so many authors choose and have chosen this point of view, and why the first-person, while popular, has not been able to surpass it. The third-person can be combined with total omniscience and very formal diction to create a work that is very serious, even solemn and religious in tone. Because this narrator is virtually without personality or defining characteristics, pronouncements come from it (its gender is usually indefinable as well) as fact, as objective descriptions of the story world. The third-person limited point of view allows the author to bring the reader closer to a given character, and this is often accompanied by a less formal tone, as well as the liberal use of free indirect discourse (a device that we will be exploring in a future article). The author can vary these elements to create a more or less formal tone, and can employ it skillfully to selectively limit the information we receive, setting up opportunities for suspense and surprise.
The first-person narrator is the next most popular choice, and this point of view is always limited to some extent. Although the first-person narrator is always a member of the story world, he or she can be more or less integral to the unfolding action; first-person narrators can be protagonists, or they can be observers distant from the tales they are telling. Although we will get into the finer gradations in a future article, the most common type of first-person narrator is as the center of their own tale, and the audience is able to feel a closeness to this narrator that is far more difficult to achieve in third-person narration. It is as if you are being told a tale by someone you know (after all, who else would talk to you for several straight hours without interruption?), and you are very likely to identify with this narrator since you are being given the details of the world through their consciousness and through their filters. It is also possible for such a narrator to be self-serving and obviously biased in their telling of events, and unreliable narrators (covered in a previous article) are most likely to come from this type.
The final option for narrative person is the second-person, but this has not developed a following to any significant degree. Here, the narrator uses you as the narrating perspective, but for obvious reasons, this is more difficult to sustain over a long period of time. After all, you know that you are not the source of this story you are reading, and thus the effect can be somewhat puzzling. It can be used in a more limited fashion, as it is through brief sections of Timothy Findlay's The Wars, and it is a mainstay of role-playing game-books, where the reader makes choices which determine how the story will unfold. When it works, the use of this point of view draws the reader in completely, insisting on immersion in the action of the story, as well as encouraging significant identification.
Note that tense is another aspect of point of view that can change the flavor of the way a story is told. The most common is the past tense, and this makes sense since it seems most natural to tell a story after the story has occurred. The use of the present tense is uncommon, but it does appear in the novel, and it is standard in the rare cases of second-person narration. It is frequently employed in dream sequences or other imaginative recreations within the main narrative point of view, and it adds a sense of immediacy and unpredictability that can be effective, again in small doses. The future tense, while possible, has to my knowledge been limited to experimental fiction, and you are unlikely to encounter it in a narrative point of view.