CHAPTER 3
Narrative Voice and Point of View
INTRODUCTION
Narration - the telling of the story
Seymour Chatman (1978)
non-narration & minimal narration
spectrum of possibilities based on narrator's audibility
and presence
cinematic narrator - organising principle or agency that
encompass a variety of semiotic channels
Ciccoricco (2014)
cybernetic narration = the orchestration of semiotic
channels in time
Richardson (2006)
Unnatural narration - the basic premise of narration
defies logic or the laws of physics
Examples: The Lovely Bones (2002), The Book Thief (2005)
Narratology offers us the vocabulary to begin to unpick
these layers and understand the way in which they relate to
one another, but this can be a very complex process and may
be a matter of individual interpretation.
THE NARRATOR
* Walter Ong (1982)
contemporary media offers a kind of 'secondary orality'
applies in the context of new media technologies
Choosing a narrative voice appropriate to the narrative and
to the audience can be crucial.
Morgan Freeman - "silky smooth narrator"
Big Brother - voice-over narration
Guides the viewers' responses to shows
Narrators may be unreliable or may employ irony
Narratives may feature more than one narrator.
American Hustle (2013) - intermittent voice-over
narration is shared between central characters
Narrative voice - expressive and interpersonal potential
TYPES OF NARRATION
Gennete (1980)  David Herman (2002): hypothetical focalization - instances
Typology of Narrators
Heterodiegetic narrator - positioned outside of the
events of the narrative
Homodiegetic narrator - takes part in the events of the
narrative
Uses the term autodiegetic to refer to narrator as star
Based on narrator's position relative to the story:
Subsequent - classic past tense narration
Prior - predicting what will happen in future or past
tense
Simultaneous - a running commentary
Interpolated/Intermittent - between the moments of
the action
In terms of different levels using spatial imagery
Extradiegetic - omniscient narration
Intradiegetic - told within the storyworld
Metadiegetic - told by one or more of the characters
Metalepsis - transgression of levels
Narratee - fully fledged character who is part of the
storyworld
CONCLUSION
Representing the voices and perspectives of others plays an important role in any story and
is crucial to a narrative's ability to engage, thrill and move the reader or viewer.
NARRATIVE FRAMING AND EMBEDDING
Framing - separation between the fictional and the real
world; "breaking the frame" = blurry boundaries
In films, a voice-over may be used as a framing device.
Narrative texts may also be framed by paratextual material.
Novels - preface or author biography
Movies - trailer, posters, or other prepublicity
Embedding - metaphors are used to help the idea of stories
'nesting' within one another
Marie-Laure Ryan (1990) - suggests stack concept where
movement of one element impacts others in a dynamic way
FOCALIZATION
Jahn (2009) - concept of focalization from modernist
literature
Seems to make a virtue out of giving readers only partial
or limited glimpses of events
Events of narrative may be represented from the perspective
of other characters in the storyworld
Murphet (2005): Focalization becomes an issue when shift
into diegetic world
Technique of thrusting the reader or viewer into a situation
of danger or threat before gradually revealing the context -
seen in films & videogames
POINT OF VIEW AND IDEOLOGY
Susan Lanser (1981) - pseudoscientific myopia
recognise cultural preferences and patterns in the
representations of POV in certain movements
Is it ever possible to have an unfiltered or completely
objective view of reality?
In news stories, the perspective from which events are
relayed to us may be significant in terms of how we
apportion the blame or responsibilty.
FOCUS IN VISUAL NARRATIVES
Cognitive narratology argues that narratives offer us the
opportunity to read the minds of others, and to try to
understand what it is like to experience the world
differently.
where reader is invited to consider what might have been
seen
Bolter and Grusin (2000): narratives from new media
technologies offer more immersive experiences
VARIATIONS & REVISIONS OF GENETTE'S THEORIES
Genette acknowledges that focalization may be variable
Rimmon-Kenan (1983): focalization in three facets
the perceptual - what the focalizer sees, hears, etc.
the psychological - what he/she is thinking or feeling
the ideological - what he/she believes in (worldview or
value system)
Internal focalization - where we share the POV of the
character VS External focalization - position external to the
storyworld (more objective)
REPRESENTING SPEECH & THOUGHT
Rimmon-Kenan (1983) considers various techniques for
writers - telling vs showing; direct vs indirect
Free indirect discourse - combination of two voices (or more)
where a narrator's representation of events is coloured by
the perspective of one or more characters