Narrator's Perspective: Participant vs. Non-Participant & Psychic Distance
Explore different narrative viewpoints in literature, including 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person perspectives, stream of consciousness, and unreliable narrators. Learn about psychic distance and its impact on storytelling.
Narrator's Perspective: Participant vs. Non-Participant & Psychic Distance
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Presentation Transcript
Things to consider • Participant or non-participant • Objectivity • Distance • Reliability
Participant • 1st person • Major character • Minor character • Innocent eye narrator • Stream of consciousness • Different times of a narrator’s life
Non-participant • 3rd person • Omniscient narrator • Selective (limited) omniscient • Objective narrator
Non-participant • 2nd person • Use of “you,” “your,” “yourself” • Rarely used in literature • Used to draw reader in – not to refer to reader
DistanceFrom John Gardner on Psychic Distance • It was winter of the year 1853. A large man stepped out of a doorway. • Basic situation • General details • No emotion
DistanceFrom John Gardner on Psychic Distance • Henry J. Warbuton had never much cared for snowstorms. • Specific person • Added detail • Mild emotion
DistanceFrom John Gardner on Psychic Distance • Henry hated snow storms. • Character more personal • Stronger emotion
DistanceFrom John Gardner on Psychic Distance • God, how he hated these damn snow storms! • Extreme emotion
DistanceFrom John Gardner on Psychic Distance • Snow. Under your collar, down inside your shoes, freezing and plugging up your miserable soul. • All fragments • Participles (ing) • 2nd person
Unreliable NarratorTheory and Research into Practice Michael W. Smith • Reconstruct meaning to test validity • Evaluate reliability of information source. • Too self-interested? • Not sufficiently experienced? • Not sufficiently knowledgeable? • Not sufficiently moral? • Too emotional? • Actions inconsistent with words?
Unreliable NarratorTheory and Research into Practice Michael W. Smith • Reconstruct meaning to test validity • Check the facts of the situation • Apply knowledge of the world