STYLE AND POINT OF VIEW

The perspective through which a story is told constitutes an important stylistic

dimension not only in prose fiction but in many types of narrative text.
First POV: From the viewing position of a participating character-narrator whose
account of actions and events is the one we must as readers share.
Third POV
•Third Person Omniscient- a detached, invisible narrator whose 'omniscience'
facilitates privileged access to the thoughts and feelings of individual characters
•Third Person Restricted Omniscient- comes across as unable or reluctant to delve
at will into the thoughts and feelings of characters
POINT OF VIEW IN FICTION
A good general technique for the exploration of point of view in a piece of
narrative is to imagine it as if you were preparing to film it. That is, try to conceive a
particular episode, as a director might, in terms of its visual perspective, its various
vantage points and viewing positions.
1. CORE DISTINCTION IN POINT OF VIEW THEORY
Who Tells (Narrator): This aspect refers to the voice or entity that conveys
the story to the reader. It's the "storyteller" within the narrative, and it can take
on different forms or personas.
Who Sees (Characters): This aspect refers to the characters in the story
and their perspectives.
2. Reflector of fiction: The term "reflector of fiction" in literature refers to a
character through whose perspective or point of view the readers witness and
experience the events and details of the story.
3. Heterodiegetic vs. Homodiegetic
o Heterodiegetic Narrator: In a heterodiegetic narrative, the narrator is
external to the story
o Homodiegetic Narrator - In a homodiegetic narrative, the narrator is a
character within the story.
4. Semantic Principle of Deixis: Deixis refers to words or phrases that rely on
context and the speaker's or writer's point of view to be understood. The
semantic principle of deixis, as a stylistic cue, works by situating the speaking
voice or narrative perspective in physical space. For example, words like
"here," "there," "this," and "that" are deixis markers that rely on the context to
point to specific physical locations.
5. Grammatical Adjuncts for Location and Spatial Relationship: In literature,
stylistic cues often include grammatical adjuncts or elements used to express
location and spatial relationships. These are words, phrases, or clauses that
provide information about where actions or objects are positioned in relation
to one another.
6. Attenuated Focalization: It refers to a narrative situation in which the point
of view is limited, even if only temporarily, to an impeded or distanced visual
perspective.