V.

Vukićević Garić
Savremene tendencije 3

Perspective in narrative: the way the representation of the story is influenced by the
position, personality and values of the narrator.

The more common term in Anglo-American criticism: "point of view."

1) "A long time ago, little Stephen Dedalus, an inhabitant of Dublin, was eagerly
listening to a story told to him by his father."

But:

2) "His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a glass: he had a hairy
face" (Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, italics NOT in the original).

***

PoV, perspective:

focalizer (Genette),
reflector, central intelligence, central consciousness (James),
window,
filter, etc.

***

Friedman, Norman. (1955). Point of View in Fiction: The Development of a

Critical Concept. PMLA, 70(5), 1160–1184. https://doi.org/10.2307/459894

Trying to establish and answer the essential questions:

1. Who “talks” to the reader? (1st or 3rd person, character in 1st, or supposedly no one);

2. From what position (angle, standpoint) regarding the story does he tell it? (above,
periphery, center, front, or shifting);

3. What channels of information does the narrator use to convey the story to the reader?

 author’s words, thoughts, perceptions, feelings;

 or character’s words and actions (spoken in a dialogue or monologue);
 or character’s thoughts, perceptions, and feelings (interior speech);
 through which of these or combination of these three possible media does information
regarding mental states, setting, situation, and character come?
4. At what distance does he place the reader from the story? (near, far, or shifting) / similar to
2. (within or outside the story, interested or indifferent, etc.)

Friedman’s typology:

1. EDITORIAL OMNISCIENCE / uredničko sveznanje,

sveznalaštvo

Here ‘omniscience’ means literally a completely unlimited point of view. The story
may be seen from any or all angles: from a godlike point beyond time and place,
from the center, the periphery, or front.

“Divine” p.o.v. – “bird’s perspective”

His presence is felt all the time, for he is always ready to intervene between the
reader and the story. Frequently the author’s voice speaks as ‘I’ or ‘we’.

The reader has complete access to any possible kinds of information. The
author’s/narrator’s thoughts, perceptions, feelings and opinion’s are the
distinguishing mark of this category. His authorial intrusions and generalizations
about life, manners, and morals may or may not be related to the story at hand.

- Mnoštvo digresija, interpretacija likova, pojašjavanje događaja i raznih

tema. (Tolstoj, Rat i mir; Tekeri,Vašar taštine, Dikensovi, itd.)
- stories? not inherent to the modern short story.

2. NEUTRAL OMNISCIENCE

Differently than the Editorial, in Neutral omniscience there are no direct authorial
intrusions (the author speaks impersonally in the 3rd person); although he is still
between the readers and the story.

Here too ‘omniscience’ means literally a completely unlimited point of view. The
story may be seen from any or all angles: from a godlike point beyond time and
place, from the center, the periphery, or front.

- objektivnost, neutralnost, “bezličnost” stila (Flober, Madam Bovari, romani

i priče T. Hardija)

3. “I” AS WITNESS

The witness-narrator is a character on his own right within the story itself, more
or less involved in the action, who speaks to the reader in the 1st person.
This is an observer narrator, who has limited access to the mental states of
others. As a secondary character, he can talk to other characters within the
story. Commonly the “I” witness narrator learns important facts through letters,
diaries and interviews with the protagonist.

- može bit i unutar i izvan “burnih događanja, može se mijenjati kroz priču,
razvijati… (Nick Caraway in The Great Gatsby, narrators in Wuthering
Heights)

4. “I” AS PROTAGONIST

He tells his own story in the 1st person and has no access to the mental state of
others.

The protagonist-narrator is limited almost entirely to his own thoughts, feelings,

perceptions. The angle of view is that of a fixed centre.

- mnoge savremene priče, postmodernism, unreliable narrators, play with certainty,

fiction vs. “reality”

5. MULTIPLE SELECTIVE ONMISCIENCE

Several character’s express their p.o.v. in succession (Woolf , Mrs Dalloway,
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying)
- ne tako često u kratkim formama, prosto zbog dužine (“Kew Gardens”?)

6. SELECTIVE OMNISCIENCE (podvrsta)

3rd person narration from the p.o.v. of ONE character, protagonist.
- free indirect speech
- primjeri? Ključno u modernističkoj priči (Woolf, Mansfield, Joyce)
- women authors more often?

7. DRAMATIC MODE
Scenic mode, no inside views.
- dijalozi ključni
- Hemingway’s stories?

8. CAMERA (CAMERA’S EYE)

combination of 7. and 1.

 nije precizirana razlika