BBL3207

1. BBL3207 POINT OF VIEW

2. Viewpoint in narration • Identifying the viewpoint presented in a text can range from being relatively straightforward, e.g. 1st-person character-narrator, to being more complex, e.g. frequent shifts in perspective, or ambiguities i.e. whose point of view is being presented.

3. Fowler’s Taxonomy of Narration • spatio-temporal • psychological • ideological point of view.

4. Psychological point of view • “the choices an author makes with regard to the various ways in which a story might be narrated” (2006, p. 41). • It is concerned with whose perspective events are presented from, whether character(s) or narrator(s) and the linguistic indicators that can be used to identify this point of view. • 2 categories of narration: • Internal narration • External narration

5. Internal and External Narration • Uspensky (1973): • Internal Narration – ‘subjective viewpoint’ of a particular character(s) • External Narration – omniscient narration, ‘objective’, includes narratorial comment on the characters and actions described

6. Internal Narration • Of course, businesses took some time to get established –MmaRamotswe understood this – but how long could one go on at a loss? She had a certain amount of money left over from her father’s estate but she could not live on that forever. She should have listened to her father; he had wanted her to buy a butchery, and that would have been so much safer. What was the expression they used? A blue-chip investment, that was it. But where was the excitement in that? (Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, p. 86)

7. External Narration • [. . .]Morris Zapp has just discovered what it is that’s bugging him about his flight. The realization is a delayed consequence of walking the length of the aircraft to the toilet, and strikes him, like a slow-burn gag in a movie-comedy, just as he is concluding his business there. (David Lodge, Changing Places, p. 29)

8. Internal - the reader is likely to feel that the point of view is more restricted • External - the point of view expressed seems to belong more to the narrator than to the character (e.g. the simile)

9. Internal Narration • The narration of events from within a particular character’s consciousness, either with that character taking on the role of narrator, or by a narrator assuming an omniscient viewpoint, able to access the internal states of the character • Type A • Type B

10. Internal Narration – Type A • narration from a point of view within a character’s consciousness, manifesting his or her feelings about, and evaluations of, the events and characters of the story • written either in the first person or in the third person with clear indicators of the character’s “world-view” or presentation of their thoughts being evident. • the most subjective form of narration  1st person narrator

11. Internal Narration – Type A • “I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I didn't do it again. Sometimes when nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen” ― Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha • “Did I write Ballsbridge on the envelope I took to cover when she disturbed me writing to Martha?” (107). (Leonard Bloom, Ulysses)

12. Internal Narration – Type B • The point of view of someone who is not a participating character but who has knowledge of the feelings of the characters - a narrator, or the so-called ‘omniscient author’ • takes the form of third-person omniscient narration • to a greater or lesser degree, the author gives an account of the mental processes, feelings and perceptions of the characters

13. Internal Narration – Type B • Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse. He had attended a surprisingly easy calving, lanced one abscess, extracted a molar, dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan, performed an unpleasant but spectacularly fruitful enema, and produced a miracle by a feat of medical prestidigitation. (Louis de Bernières, CaptainCorelli’sMandolin, p. 1; myunderlining) • Underlined parts do not necessarily reflect Dr Iannis’s feelings about his day but seem instead to be the narrator’s evaluations of events.

14. External Narration • The events of a story are presented from a position outside any particular character’s consciousness, therefore excluding any thoughts or feelings that character may experience. • Type C • Type D

15. External Narration – Type C • The “objective” presentation of events as they happened, without comment or evaluation from the narrator. • Not offering to report what an ordinary unprivileged observer could not see. • It is impersonal in relation to the author or narrator, declining to offer judgements on the characters’ actions;

16. External Narration – Type C • This claimed authorial objectivity is indicated by avoidance of evaluative modalities (adjectives, adverbs) • ‘the most neutral, impersonal, type of third person narration’ (Fowler 1996: 177). • There is no insight into the internal states of the characters but simply a description of their actions. • It is this type of narration that is perhaps most commonly associated with stage directions in drama.

17. External Narration – Type C Two other people had been in the lunchroom. Once George had gone out to the kitchen and made a ham-and-egg sandwich “to go” that a man wanted to take with him. Inside the kitchen he saw Al, his derby hat tipped back, sitting on a stool beside the wicket with the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun resting on the ledge. Nick and the cook were back to back in the corner, a towel tied in each of their mouths. George had cooked the sandwich, wrapped it up in oiled paper, put it in a bag, brought it in, and the man had paid for it and gone out. “Bright boy can do everything,” Max said. “He can cook and everything. You’d make some girl a nice wife, bright boy.” (E. Hemingway, The Killer)

18. External Narration – Type D • Takes into account the opinion and the impressions of the narrator. • The author pretends to have no access to the internal states of characters and establishes this pretence by the use of, characterised through the use of non-factive expressions (words of estrangement) • I {believe, guess, think, agree, doubt, fear, imagine} that it is raining • It {appears, seems, is likely, is certain, is probable} that it is raining • more generally be seen as indicators of a limited viewpoint, whether of character or narrator.

19. External Narration – Type D