Point of view in fiction

1. Point of view in fiction Stanzel Friedman

2. Narrator & Author • In narrative theory, the person or personage who is the overall teller of the story is known as the narrator. • The narrator should not be confused with the author. • In a fictional work, the author is the real person writing the work, whereas the narrator is the fictional being or device who/which tells us the story.

3. Two Types of Narrators: • The first-person narrator (or I-narrator) and • The third-person narrator. Authorial narrative Figural narrative

4. First-person, authorial and figural narrative • internal • Com- • muni- • cation mediating • sys- • tem • external Fictionalworld narrator reader

5. First-person, authorial and figural narrative • internal • Com- • muni- • cation mediating • sys- • tem • external Fictionalworld narrator narrator reader

6. Extract from Günther Grass' The Tin Drum : 1st/3rd Person ? • I was worried about my drums. They didn't like my drums. My own drum couldn't stand up to their rage; there was nothing it could do but bow and keep quiet. But Markus had escaped from their rage. When they went to see him in his office, they did not knock, they broke the door open, although it was not locked.

7. From Henry Fielding's Tom Jones : 1st/3rd Person ? • I have told my reader, in the preceding chapter, that Mr Allworthy inherited a large fortune; that he had a good heart, and no family. Hence, doubtless, it will be concluded by many, that he lived like an honest man, owed no one a shilling, took nothing but what was his own, kept a good house, entertained his neighbours with a

8. There was once a drummer, his name was Oskar. When they took away his toy merchant and ransacked the shop, he suspected that hard times were in the offing for gnomelike drummers like himself. And so, in leaving the store, he picked out of the ruins a whole drum and two that were not so badly injured, hung them round his neck, and so left Arsenal Passage for the Kohlenmarkt to look for his father, who was probably looking for him. Outside, it was a November morning...

9. First-person, authorial and figural narrative • internal • Com- • muni- • cation mediating • sys- • tem • external Fictionalworld becomes reflector narrator reader

10. First-person, authorial and figural narrative • internal • Com- • muni- • cation mediating • sys- • tem • external person narrator Fictional world becomes reflector narrator reader perspective Mode of telling

11. First-person, authorial, figural narrative

12. internal Com- muni- cation mediating sys- tem external Friedman‘s concept Periphery centre fictional world „I“ as protagonist narrator „I“ as ob- ser- ver reader

13. internal Com- muni- cation mediating sys- tem external Friedman. „Point of view in fiction“ Fictional world Neutralomniscience Editor narrator neutral Editorial omniscience reader

14. internal Com- muni- cation mediating sys- tem external Friedman. „Point of view in fiction“ Fictional world Selective omni- science Editor narrator neutral Multiple selective omniscience reader