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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{short description|Written or spoken commentary
{{about|using a commentary to present a story|other strategies used to present stories|Narrative technique}}
{{redirect|Narrator}}
'''Narration''' is the use of a written or spoken commentary to [[storytelling|convey]] a [[narrative|story]] to an [[audience]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Narration in Poetry and Drama|author-last1=Hühn|author-first1=Peter|author-last2=Sommer|author-first2=Roy|work=The Living Handbook of Narratology|year=2012|publisher=Interdisciplinary Center for Narratology, University of Hamburg|url=https://www-archiv.fdm.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/article/narration-poetry-and-drama.html}}</ref> Narration is conveyed by a '''narrator''': a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story
The '''narrative mode''', which is sometimes also used as synonym for [[narrative technique]], encompasses the set of choices through which the creator of the story develops their narrator and narration:
* ''Narrative point of view, perspective,'' or ''voice'': the choice of [[grammatical person]] used by the narrator to establish whether or not the narrator and the audience are participants in the story; also, this includes the scope of the information or knowledge that the narrator presents
* ''Narrative tense'': the choice of either the past or present [[grammatical tense]] to establish either the prior completion or current immediacy of the plot
* ''[[Narrative technique]]'': any of the various other methods chosen to help narrate a story, such as establishing the story's [[Setting (narrative)|setting]] (location in time and space), [[characterization|developing characters]], exploring [[Theme (narrative)|themes]] (main ideas or topics), [[Narrative structure|structuring the plot]], intentionally expressing certain details but not others, following or subverting [[Literary genre|genre]] norms, employing certain linguistic styles and using various other
Thus, narration includes both ''who'' tells the story and ''how'' the story is told (for example, by using [[stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream of consciousness]] or [[unreliable narrator|unreliable narration]]). The narrator may be anonymous and unspecified, or a [[Character (arts)|character]] appearing and participating within their own story (whether fictitious or factual), or the author themself as a character. The narrator may merely relate the story to the audience without being involved in the plot and may have varied awareness of characters' thoughts and distant events. Some stories have [[multiperspectivity|multiple narrators]] to illustrate the storylines of various characters at various times, creating a story with a complex perspective.
==
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
===Literary theory===
The Russian semiotician [[Boris
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".
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
▲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 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>
=== Second-person ===
{{Category see also|Second-person narrative fiction}}
The second-person point of view is a point of view
[[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
▲The second-person point of view is a point of view where the audience is made a character. This is done with the use of second-person pronouns like ''you''. The narrator could be literally addressing the audience, but more often the second-person referent of these stories is actually some character within the story. Novels in second person are comparatively rare; rather, this point of view tends to be mostly confined to songs and poems. Nevertheless, some notable examples include the novel ''[[Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas]]'' by [[Tom Robbins]], ''[[If on a winter's night a traveler]]'' by [[Italo Calvino]], 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.
▲<blockquote>"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)</blockquote>
▲[[Gamebook]]s, including the American ''[[Choose Your Own Adventure]]'' and British ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' series (the two largest examples of the genre), are written from the second-person perspective. Indeed, second-person narrative is a near-ubiquitous feature of the 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 written in the second person, 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 second person flavor text in pop up text boxes with character and location descriptions. [[Charles Stross]]'s novel ''[[Halting State]]'' was 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>
==== <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.
Examples of ''Limited'' or close third-person point of view,
==== <span class="anchor" id="Third-person, subjective"></span> Subjective or objective ====
''Subjective'' point of view is when the narrator conveys the thoughts, feelings
=== Alternating- or multiple-person ===▼
{{Main|Multiperspectivity}}
While the tendency for novels (or other narrative works) is to adopt a single point of view throughout the entire novel, some authors have utilized other points of view that, for example, alternate between different first-person narrators or alternate between a first- and a third-person narrative mode. The ten books of the ''[[Pendragon: Journal of an Adventure through Time and Space|Pendragon]]'' adventure series, by [[D. J. MacHale]], switch back and forth between a first-person perspective (handwritten journal entries) of the main character along his journey as well as a disembodied third-person perspective focused on his friends back home.<ref name="White">
| 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>
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>
▲=== Alternating person ===
▲While the tendency for novels (or other narrative works) is to adopt a single point of view throughout the entire novel, some authors have utilized other points of view that, for example, alternate between different first-person narrators or alternate between a first- and a third-person narrative mode. The ten books of the ''[[Pendragon: Journal of an Adventure through Time and Space|Pendragon]]'' adventure series, by [[D. J. MacHale]], switch back and forth between a first-person perspective (handwritten journal entries) of the main character along his journey as well as a disembodied third-person perspective focused on his friends back home.<ref name="White">White, Claire E (2004). "[http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/oct04/a-conversation-with-d-j-machale-10041 A Conversation With D.J. MacHale]." ''The Internet Writing Journal''. Writer Write, Inc.</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.
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 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>
==
In narrative past tense, the events of the plot occur before the narrator's present.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Walter |first1=Liz |title=When no one was looking, she opened the door: Using narrative tenses |url=https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2017/07/26/when-no-one-was-looking-she-opened-the-door-using-narrative-tenses/ |website=cambridge.org |date=26 July 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=28 July 2020}}</ref> This is by far the most common tense in which stories are expressed. This could be in the narrator's distant past or their immediate past, which for practical purposes is the same as their present. Past tense can be used regardless of whether the setting is in the reader's past, present, or future.
In narratives using present tense, the events of the plot are depicted as occurring in the narrator's current moment of time. A recent example of novels narrated in the present tense are those of the ''[[Hunger Games]]'' trilogy by [[Suzanne Collins]]. Present tense can also be used to narrate events in the reader's past. This is known as "[[historical present]]".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Schiffrin|first1=Deborah|date=March 1981|title=Tense Variation in Narrative|journal=Language|volume=57|issue=1|pages=45–62|doi=10.2307/414286|issn=0097-8507|jstor=414286}}</ref> This tense is more common in spontaneous conversational narratives than in written literature, though it is sometimes used in literature to give a sense of immediacy of the actions. [[Screenplay]] action is also written in the present tense.
The future tense is the most rare, portraying the events of the plot as occurring some time after the narrator's present. Often, these upcoming events are described such that the narrator has foreknowledge (or supposed foreknowledge) of their future, so many future-tense stories have a [[prophecy|prophetic]] tone
==Technique==
{{Main article|List of narrative techniques}}
=== Stream-of-consciousness ===
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=== Unreliable narrator ===
{{Main article|Unreliable narrator}}
Unreliable narration involves the use of an untrustworthy narrator. This mode may be employed to give the audience a deliberate sense of disbelief in the story or a level of suspicion or mystery as to what information is meant to be true and what is meant to be false. Unreliable narrators are usually first-person narrators;
== See also ==
* [[Narrative structure]]
* [[Opening narration]]
* [[Pace (narrative)
* [[Voice-over]]
== Notes ==
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