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== Point of view ==
An ongoing debate has persisted regarding the nature of narrative point of view. A variety of different theoretical approaches have sought to define point of view in terms of person, perspective, voice, consciousness and focus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chamberlain |first1=Daniel Frank |title=Narrative Perspective in Fiction: A Phenomenological Meditation of Reader, Text, and World |year=1990 |publisher=ITHAKA |jstor=10.3138/j.ctt2ttgv0 |isbn=9780802058386 }}</ref> Narrative perspective is the position and character of the storyteller, in relation to the narrative itself.<ref>{{cite book|editor=James McCracken|title=The Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/|access-date=16 October 2011|edition=Online|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> There is, for instance, a common distinction between first-person and third-person narrative, which [[Gérard Genette]] refers to as intradiegetic and extradiegetic narrative, respectively.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method |last=Genette |first=Gérard |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |year=1980 |isbn=0-8014-9259-9 |location=Ithaca |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801410994/narrative-discourse/ |page=228 |others=Foreword by Jonathan Culler |lccn=79013499 |ol=8222857W |author-mask=0 |access-date=2023-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004203129/https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801410994/narrative-discourse/ |archive-date=2023-10-04 |url-status=live |translator-last=Lewin |translator-first=Jane E.}}</ref> Intradiegetic narrators are of two types: a homodiegetic narrator participates as a character in the story. Such a narrator cannot know more about other characters than what their actions reveal. A heterodiegetic narrator, in contrast, describes the experiences of the characters that appear in the story in which he or she does not participate.
Most narrators present their story from one of the following perspectives (called narrative modes): first-person, third-person limited, or (third-person) omniscient. A [[first-person narrative|first-person narrator]] offers the potential for unreliability, which means it can both reveal and obscure the narrator's actions and feelings. A [[third-person limited|third-person limited narrator]], otherwise known as close third-person, is also focused on a character's perception and experience of the world, but without the ability to lie. A [[third-person omniscient narrative|third-person omniscient narrator]] can give a panoramic view of the world of the story, revealing the thoughts and actions of more than one character, and into the broader background of a story.
===Literary theory===
The Russian semiotician [[Boris UspenskyUspenskij]] identifies five planes on which point of view is expressed in a narrative: spatial, temporal, psychological, phraseological and ideological.<ref>[[Boris Uspensky]], ''A Poetics of Composition: The Structure of the Artistic Text and Typology of Compositional Form'', trans. Valentina Zavarin and Susan Wittig (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1973).</ref> The American literary critic Susan Sniader Lanser also develops these categories.<ref>Susan Sniader Lanser, ''The Narrative Act: Point of View in Prose Fiction'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1981).</ref>
The temporal point of view can refer to narrative tense, or it can refer to how detailed or summarized the narration is. For example, when events are narrated after they have occurred (posterior narration), the narrator is in a privileged position to the characters in the story and can delve into the deeper significance of events and happenings, pointing out the missteps and missed meanings of the characters. The temporal point of view also focuses on the pace of the narration. The narrative pace can either be accelerated or slowed down. Narrative retardation (slowing down of narration) foregrounds events and suggests what is to be noticed by the reader, whereas summation or acceleration of narrative pace places events and happenings in the background, diminishing their importance.
The psychological point of view focuses on the characters' behaviors. Lanser concludes that this is "an extremely complex aspect of point of view, for it encompasses the broad question of the narrator's distance or affinity to each character and event…represented in the text".<ref>Lanser, 201–02.</ref> Negative comments distance the reader from a character's point of view while positive evaluations create affinity with his or her perspective. ▼
▲The psychological point of view focuses on the characters' behaviors. Lanser concludes that this is "an extremely complex aspect of point of view, for it encompasses the broad question of the narrator's distance or affinity to each character and event…represented in the text".<ref>Lanser, 201–02.</ref> Negative comments distance the reader from a character's point of view while positive evaluations create affinity with his or her perspective.
The phraseological point of view focuses on the speech characteristics of the characters and the narrator. For example, the names, titles, epithets and sobriquets given to a character may evaluate a character's actions or speech and express a narrative point of view.
The ideological point of view is not only "the most basic aspect of point of view" but also the "least accessible to formalization, for its analysis relies to a degree, on intuitive understanding".<ref>[[Boris Uspensky|Uspensky]], 8.</ref> This aspect of the point of view focuses on the norms, values, beliefs and Weltanschauung (worldview) of the narrator or a character. The ideological point of view may be stated outright—what Lanser calls "explicit ideology"—or it may be embedded at "deep-structural" levels of the text and not easily identified.<ref>Lanser, 216–17.</ref>
=== First-person ===
{{Main article|First-person narrative}}
A first-person point of view reveals the story through an openly self-referential and participating narrator. First person creates a close relationship between the narrator and reader, by referring to the viewpoint character with first person pronouns like ''I'' and ''me'' (as well as ''we'' and ''us'', whenever the narrator is part of a larger group).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wyile|first=Andrea Schwenke|date=1999|title=Expanding the View of First-Person Narration|journal=Children's Literature in Education|language=en|volume=30|issue=3|pages=185–202|doi=10.1023/a:1022433202145|s2cid=142607561|issn=0045-6713}}</ref> That is, the narrator openly acknowledges their own existence. Frequently, the first-person narrator is the [[protagonist]], whose inner thoughts are expressed to the audience, even if not to any of the other characters. A first person narrator with a limited perspective is not able to witness or understand all facets of any situation. Thus, a narrator with this perspective will not be able to report the circumstances fully and will leave the reader with a subjective record of the plot details. Additionally, this narrator's character could be pursuing a hidden agenda or may be struggling with mental or physical challenges that further hamper their ability to tell the reader the whole, accurate truth of events. This form includes [[Free indirect speech|temporary first-person narration]] as a [[story within a story]], wherein a narrator or character observing the telling of a story by another is reproduced in full, temporarily and without interruption shifting narration to the speaker. The first-person narrator can also be the [[focal character]]. The viewpoint character is not necessarily the focal character: examples of supporting viewpoint characters include [[Doctor Watson]], Scout in ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'' and Nick Carraway of ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''.
=== Second-person ===
{{Category see also|Second-person narrative fiction}}
The second-person point of view is a point of view similar to first-person in its possibilities of unreliability. The narrator recounts their own experience but adds distance (often ironic) through the use of the second-person pronoun ''you''. This is not a direct address to any given reader even if it purports to be, such as in the metafictional ''[[If on a winter's night a traveler]]'' by [[Italo Calvino]]. Other notable examples of second-person include the novel ''[[Bright Lights, Big City (novel)|Bright Lights, Big City]]'' by [[Jay McInerney]], the short fiction of [[Lorrie Moore]] and [[Junot Díaz]], the short story ''[[The Egg (2009 short story)|The Egg]]'' by [[Andy Weir]] and [[Second Thoughts (Butor novel)|''Second Thoughts'']] by [[Michel Butor]]. Sections of [[N. K. Jemisin]]'s ''[[The Fifth Season (novel)|The Fifth Season]]'' and its sequels are also narrated in the second person.
{{quote|You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.|Opening lines of [[Jay McInerney]]'s ''[[Bright Lights, Big City (novel)|Bright Lights, Big City]]'' (1984)}}
[[Mohsin Hamid]]'s ''[[The Reluctant Fundamentalist (novel)|The Reluctant Fundamentalist]]'' and [[Gamebook]]s, including the American ''[[Choose Your Own Adventure]]'' and British ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' series (the two largest examples of the genre), are not true second-person narratives, because there is an implicit narrator (in the case of the novel) or writer (in the case of the series) addressing an audience. This device of the addressed reader is a near-ubiquitous feature of the game-related medium, regardless of the wide differences in target reading ages and [[role-playing game]] system complexity. Similarly, text-based [[interactive fiction]], such as ''[[Colossal Cave Adventure]]'' and ''[[Zork]]'', conventionally has descriptions that address the user, telling the character what they are seeing and doing. This practice is also encountered occasionally in text-based segments of graphical games, such as those from [[Spiderweb Software]], which make ample use of pop-up text boxes with character and location descriptions. Most of [[Charles Stross]]'s novel ''[[Halting State]]'' is written in second person as an allusion to this style.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-441-01498-9|title=Halting State, Review|work=Publishers Weekly|date=1 October 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/05/and-another-thing.html|title=And another thing|author=Charles Stross}}</ref>
=== {{anchor|third}}Third-person<!-- Section linked from [[Horus Heresy (novels)]] --> ===
{{redirect|Third-person perspective|the graphical perspective in video games|Third-person view}}
In the third-person narrative mode, the narration refers to all characters with [[Personal pronoun|third person pronouns]] like ''he'', ''she'', or ''they'', and never first- or second-person pronouns.<ref name="Ricoeur1990">{{cite book |author=Paul Ricoeur |title=Time and Narrative |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjBw9NuSkuEC&pg=PA89 |date=15 September 1990 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-71334-2 |pages=89–}}</ref>
Third-person narration can include an [[omniscient]] narrator; close or limited points of view; or a combination of the two. Sometimes, third-person narration is called the "he/she" perspective,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://signbook.persiangig.com/document/literature/theory/raavi1.pdf |title=Ranjbar Vahid. ''The Narrator'', Iran: Baqney 2011 |access-date=17 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224234336/http://signbook.persiangig.com/document/literature/theory/raavi1.pdf |archive-date=24 December 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and, on even rarer occasions, author/omniscient point of view.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
A third person [[omniscient]] narrator can convey information about multiple characters, places and events in the story, including any given character's thoughts, and a third-person close or limited narration conveys the knowledge and subjective experience of just one character. Third person narration, in both its limited and omniscient variants, became the most popular narrative perspective during the 20th century.
==== <span class="anchor" id="Third-person, omniscient"></span><span class="anchor" id="omni3"></span> Omniscient or limited<!-- Section linked from [[Horus Heresy (novels)]] --> ====
''Omniscient'' point of view is presented by a narrator with an overarching perspective, seeing and knowing everything that happens within the world of the story, including what each of the characters is thinking and feeling. The inclusion of an omniscient narrator is typical in nineteenth-century fiction including works by [[Charles Dickens]], [[Leo Tolstoy]] and [[George Eliot]].<ref>{{citation |last1=Herman |first1=David |last2=Jahn |first2=Manfred |last3=Ryan |title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory |year=2005 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-28259-8 |page=442}}</ref> It sometimes even takes a subjective approach. One advantage of narrative omniscience is that it enhances the sense of objective reliability (that is, apparent truthfulness) of the plot, which may be important with more complex narratives. The third-person omniscient narrator can have its own personality, offering judgments and opinions on the behavior of the story characters.
Some works of fiction, especially novels, employ multiple points of view, with different points of view presented in discrete sections or chapters, including ''[[The English Patient]]'' by [[Michael Ondaatje]], ''[[The Emperor's Children]]'' by [[Claire Messud]] and the ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' series by [[George R. R. Martin]]. ''[[The Home and the World]]'', written in 1916 by [[Rabindranath Tagore]], is another example of a book with three different point-of-view characters. In ''[[The Heroes of Olympus]]'' series, written by [[Rick Riordan]], the point of view alternates between characters at intervals. The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series focuses on the protagonist for much of the seven novels, but sometimes deviates to other characters, particularly in the opening chapters of later novels in the series, which switch from the view of the [[Eponym|eponymous]] Harry to other characters (for example, the Muggle Prime Minister in [[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince|the Half-Blood Prince]]).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince|last=Rowling|first=J.K.|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2005|isbn=978-0-7475-8108-6|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_074758110x/page/6 6–18]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_074758110x/page/6}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=July 2020}}
Examples of ''Limited'' or close third-person point of view, confined to one character's perspective, include J.M. Coetzee's ''Disgrace''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mountford |first1=Peter |title=Third-Person Limited: Analyzing Fiction's Most Flexible Point of View |url=https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/why-third-person-limited-point-of-view |newspaper=Writer's Digest |access-date=28 July 2020}}</ref>
==== <span class="anchor" id="Third-person, subjective"></span> Subjective or objective ====
''Subjective'' point of view is when the narrator conveys the thoughts, feelings and opinions of one or more characters.<ref name=Dynes>{{cite book |last1=Dynes |first1=Barbara |title=Masterclasses in Creative Writing |date=2014 |publisher=Constable & Robinson |location=United Kingdom |isbn=978-1-47211-003-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s0jBBAAAQBAJ&dq=third-person+subjective+objective&pg=PT37 |access-date=28 July 2020 |chapter=Using Third Person}}</ref> If this is just one character, it can be termed ''third-person limitedObjective'', in which the reader is limited to the thoughtspoint of someview particularemploys charactera (oftennarrator thewho [[protagonist]])tells asa in the first-person mode, except still giving personal descriptions using third-person pronouns. This isstory oftenwithout thedescribing mainany character (for example, Gabriel in [[James Joyce]]'s "[[Thethoughts, Dead (Joyce short story)|The Dead]]"opinions, [[Nathanielor Hawthorne]]'sfeelings; ''[[Young Goodman Brown]]''instead, orit Santiagogives inan [[ErnestObjectivity Hemingway(philosophy)|Hemingwayobjective]]'s ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]''). Certain third-person omniscient modes are also classifiable as using the third person, subjectiveunbiased mode when they switch between the thoughts and feelingspoint of allview.<ref the characters.name=Dynes/>
In contrast to the broad, sweeping perspectives seen in many 19th-century novels, third-person subjective is sometimes called the "over the shoulder" perspective; the narrator only describes events perceived and information known by a character. At its narrowest and most subjective scope, the story reads as though the viewpoint character were narrating it; dramatically this is very similar to the first person, in that it allows in-depth revelation of the protagonist's personality, but does not permit the same level of unreliability.
[[Free indirect speech]] is a literary term that refers to the presentation of a character's thoughts in the voice of the third-person narrator.
''Objective'' point of view employs a narrator who tells a story without describing any character's thoughts, opinions, or feelings; instead, it gives an [[Objectivity (philosophy)|objective]], unbiased point of view.<ref name=Dynes/> Often the narrator is self-dehumanized in order to make the narrative more neutral. This type of narrative mode is often seen outside of fiction in newspaper articles, biographical documents and scientific journals. This narrative mode can be described as a "fly-on-the-wall" or "camera lens" approach that can only record the observable actions but does not interpret these actions or relay what thoughts are going through the minds of the characters. Works of fiction that use this style emphasize characters acting out their feelings observably. Internal thoughts, if expressed, are given through an aside or soliloquy. While this approach does not allow the author to reveal the unexpressed thoughts and feelings of the characters, it does allow the author to reveal information that not all or any of the characters may be aware of. An example of this so-called camera-eye perspective is "[[Hills Like White Elephants]]" by [[Ernest Hemingway]].
This narrative mode is also called ''third-person dramatic'' because the narrator, like the audience of a drama, is neutral and ineffective toward the progression of the plot—merely an uninvolved onlooker.
=== Alternating- or multiple-person ===
| last = White | first = Claire E.
| year = 2004
|title=D.J. MacHale Interview|url=https://www.writerswrite.com/journal/dj-machale-10041|access-date=2023-01-25|publisher=Writers Write|work=The Internet Writing Journal}}</ref> [[Margaret Atwood]]'s ''[[Alias Grace]]'' provides one character's viewpoint from first-person as well as another character's from third-person limited. Often, a narrator using the first person will try to be more objective by also employing the third person for important action scenes, especially those in which they are not directly involved or in scenes where they are not present to have viewed the events in firsthand. This mode is found in [[Barbara Kingsolver]]'s ''[[The Poisonwood Bible]]''. In [[William Faulkner]]'s ''[[As I Lay Dying]]'', even the perspective of a deceased person is included.
[[Audrey Niffenegger]]'s ''[[The Time Traveler's Wife]]'' alternates between an art student named Clare and a librarian named Henry. [[John Green]] and [[David Levithan]]'s novel ''[[Will Grayson, Will Grayson]]'' rotates between two boys both named Will Grayson. It alternates between both boys telling their part of the story, how they meet and how their lives then come together. [[K.A. Applegate]]'s ''[[Animorphs]]'' series contains four special-edition books, the ''Megamorphs'' books, in which narration alternates among the six main characters, Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco and Ax.
''[[My Name Is Red]]'' and ''[[Silent House (novel)|Silent House]]'' by [[Orhan Pamuk]] have alternating first-person narrators. Sometimes even animals, plants and objects narrate.
A writer may choose to let several narrators tell the story from different points of view. Then it is up to the reader to decide which narrator seems most reliable for each part of the story. See for instance the works of [[Louise Erdrich]]. [[William Faulkner]]'s ''[[As I Lay Dying]]'' is a prime example of the use of multiple narrators. Faulkner employs [[stream of consciousness]] to narrate the story from various perspectives.
In Indigenous American communities, narratives and storytelling are often told by a number of elders in the community. In this way, the stories are never static because they are shaped by the relationship between narrator and audience. Thus, each individual story may have countless variations. Narrators often incorporate minor changes in the story in order to tailor the story to different audiences.<ref>Piquemal, 2003. From Native North American Oral Traditions to Western Literacy: Storytelling in Education.</ref>
The use of multiple narratives in a story is not simply a stylistic choice, but rather an interpretive one that offers insight into the development of a larger social identity and the impact that has on the overarching narrative, as explained by Lee Haring.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Haring |first=Lee |date=2004-08-27 |title=Framing in Oral Narrative |journal=Marvels & Tales |language=en |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=229–245 |doi=10.1353/mat.2004.0035 |s2cid=143097105 |issn=1536-1802}}</ref> Haring analyzes the use of framing in oral narratives, and how the usage of multiple perspectives provides the audience with a greater historical and cultural background of the narrative. She also argues that narratives (particularly myths and [[folklore#Folklore genres|folktales]]) that implement multiple narrators deserves to be categorized as its own narrative genre, rather than simply a narrative device that is used solely to explain phenomena from different points of view.
Haring provides an example from the Arabic folktales of ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'' to illustrate how framing was used to loosely connect each story to the next, where each story was enclosed within the larger narrative. Additionally, Haring draws comparisons between ''Thousand and One Nights'' and the oral storytelling observed in parts of rural [[Ireland]], islands of the Southwest Indian Ocean and African cultures such as [[Madagascar]].<blockquote>"I'll tell you what I'll do," said the smith. "I'll fix your sword for you tomorrow, if you tell me a story while I'm doing it." The speaker was an Irish storyteller in 1935, framing one story in another (O'Sullivan 75, 264). The moment recalls the Thousand and One Nights, where the story of "The Envier and the Envied" is enclosed in the larger story told by the Second Kalandar (Burton 1: 113-39), and many stories are enclosed in others."<ref name=":0"/></blockquote>
* [[Narrative structure]]
* [[Opening narration]]
* [[Pace (narrative)|Pace]]
* [[Voice-over]]
== Notes ==
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