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Point of View
Visualizing a text from a variety of perspectives
and in a variety of dimensions
foreground, what appears closes and most
prominent to someone
background, what appears remotest and most
inconspicuous
point of view, vantage point from which a particular
even is seen, and by extension, heard, felt and
otherwise perceived
Paul Garvin used term foregrounding as translation of Czech aktualisace,
actualising, used in the 1930s Prague school of stylistics
this is whenver a linguistic item, device or strategy draws attention to itself
against the assumed background norms of the language
result if a fresh perception both of the event represetned and of the nature
of language itself
this is where defamiliarisation occurs.
examples, in jokes whre the ambiguity or incongruity of an item draws
attention to itself
'My dog smells awful, How does yours smell? (With its nose)
also along with poetry, a heightening of sound-pattern
can also omit commas, line breaks, etc...
Also deviation is used o describe instances where the routine norms and
expectations of the language are bent of broken, deliberately or accidentally
e.e. cummings: anyone lived in a pretty how town
problem is that it assumes we all have the same norms and expectations
I love you not
I love you not
I love you not
I love you not
I love you not
I love you not
I love you not
I love you notwithstanding
Background 'historical background' 'background reading'
somehow, people think, literature is detachable from social and
historical conditions in which it is produced
study the text, but what about the context, and intertextuality?
however,
foreground = literature = primary text
background = society/history = context
this is a position, and just one among many
all works are witten, received and read in a history (ontic)
but by practical necessity we must focus on something, choose
make something the foreground, something background
but be aware these are fluid
points of view
variety of postions within and outside the text
ex:
acutal author's attitudes and values, e.g. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
narrator's piont of view, Robinson Crusoe's
character's pont of view, Friday's
implied reader's point of view, seen in 'dear reader' form of address,
or 'of course'
actual reader's responses, eg what you and I actually see or look for
what most engages us is shifts or switches in point of view, hte ways in
which attitudes and values of charcter, author, narrator, change,
collide, diferge and converge ina story.
a fixed point of view, like fixed foreground or background, is boring
Focalization
Focalization- "introduced by Gerard Genette to distinguish the activity
of the narrator recounting the events of the fictional world from the
activity of the character from whose perspective events are perceived,
or FOCALIZED. The distinction between the narrator and the
FOCALIZER is commonly described in literary theory as a distinction
between the agent 'who speaks' and the agent 'who sees.' (Stam et al).
While she was standing by the door, the light went on.
She was standing by the door when the light went on.
...