TYPES OF

NARRATION
Narratology
- the study of narrative in literature
Early examples in the 20th century:
Vladimir Propp (Russian Formalist)
Morphology of the Folktale (1928)
Claude Lévi-Strauss (Structuralist)
Anthropologie Structurale (1958)
(myths)
Gérard Genette, Narrative discourse (1972)
Genette’s system
narrative: the result of the interaction of
its component levels
3 basic kinds of narrator:
- narrator is absent from his own narrative
((‗heterodiegetic narrator‘))
- narrator is inside his narrative (1st
person)((‗homodiegetic narrator‘))
- narrator is inside his narrative and also
main character ((‗autodiegetic narrator‘))
Roland Barthes (1915-1980)
France: from structuralism to poststructuralism
attempt to describe narrative as a formal
system based on the model of a grammar
‗The death of the Author‘ (essay from 1967)
(against the concept of the author as
a way of forcing a meaning on to a text)
S/Z (1970) a critical reading of
Balzac‘s Sarrasine
- text open to interpretation
Narrative Texts
 Narrative texts tell a story or part of
a story.

 Narrative texts include plot

structure, conflict, characterization,
setting, theme, point of view,
sequencing, and transitions.
Examples of
Narrative Texts
 Novels
 Short Stories
 Biographies/Autobiographies
 Historical Accounts
 Poems
 Plays
Viewpoint in narration
 Identifying the viewpoint presented in
a text can range from being relatively
straightforward, e.g. 1st-person
character-narrator, to being more
complex, e.g. frequent shifts in
perspective, or ambiguities i.e. whose
point of view is being presented.
Martin Fowler’s Taxonomy of
Narration

1. spatio-temporal
2. psychological
3. ideological point of view.
Psychological point of view
 ―the choices an author makes with
regard to the various ways in which a
story might be narrated‖ (2006, p. 41).
 It is concerned with whose perspective
events are presented from, whether
character(s) or narrator(s) and the
linguistic indicators that can be used to
identify this point of view.
 2 categories of narration:
i. Internal narration
ii. External narration
Internal and External Narration
 B. Uspensky (1973):

i. Internal Narration – ‗subjective

viewpoint‘ of a particular character(s)

ii. External Narration – omniscient narration,

‗objective‘, includes narratorial comment
on the characters and actions described
Internal Narration
 Of course, businesses took some time to get
established –Mma Ramotswe understood this –
but how long could one go on at a loss? She had a
certain amount of money left over from her father‘s
estate but she could not live on that forever. She
should have listened to her father; he had wanted
her to buy a butchery, and that would have been
so much safer. What was the expression they
used? A blue-chip investment, that was it. But
where was the excitement in that?

(Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1

Ladies‘ Detective Agency)
External Narration
 [. . .]Morris Zapp has just discovered what
it is that‘s bugging him about his flight.
The realization is a delayed consequence
of walking the length of the aircraft to the
toilet, and strikes him, like a slow-burn
gag in a movie-comedy, just as he is
concluding his business there.
(David Lodge, Changing Places, p. 29)
 Internal - the reader is likely to
feel that the point of view is more
restricted
 External - the point of view
expressed seems to belong
more to the narrator than to the
character (e.g. the simile)
 Internal Narration
 The narration of events from within a
particular character‘s consciousness,
either with that character taking on the
role of narrator, or by a narrator assuming
an omniscient viewpoint, able to access
the internal states of the character
 Type A
 Type B
 Internal Narration – Type A
 narration from a point of view within a
character‘s consciousness, manifesting his
or her feelings about, and evaluations of, the
events and characters of the story
 written either in the first person or in the third
person with clear indicators of the character‘s
―world-view‖ or presentation of their
thoughts being evident.

 the most subjective form of narration 1st
person narrator
Internal Narration – Type A
 ―I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing
happened. I didn't do it again.
Sometimes when nothing happened it
was really getting ready to happen‖
— Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

 ―Did I write Ballsbridge on the envelope

I took to cover when she disturbed me
writing to Martha?‖ (107). (Leonard
Bloom, Ulysses)
 Internal Narration – Type B
 The point of view of someone who is not
a participating character but who has
knowledge of the feelings of the
characters - a narrator, or the so-called
‗omniscient author‘
 takes the form of third-person
omniscient narration
 to a greater or lesser degree, the author
gives an account of the mental processes,
feelings and perceptions of the characters
 Internal Narration – Type B
 Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in
which none of his patients had died or got any
worse. He had attended a surprisingly easy
calving, lanced one abscess, extracted a molar,
dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan,
performed an unpleasant but spectacularly
fruitful enema, and produced a miracle by a feat
of medical prestidigitation.
(Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli‘s Mandolin)

 Underlined parts do not necessarily reflect Dr

Iannis‘s feelings about his day but seem instead
to be the narrator‘s evaluations of events.
External Narration
 The events of a story are presented from
a position outside any particular
character‘s consciousness, therefore
excluding any thoughts or feelings that
character may experience.
 Type C
 Type D
External Narration – Type C
 The ―objective‖ presentation of events as
they happened, without comment or
evaluation from the narrator.
 Not offering to report what an ordinary
unprivileged observer could not see.
 It is impersonal in relation to the author or
narrator, declining to offer judgements on
the characters‘ actions;
 This claimed authorial objectivity is
indicated by avoidance of evaluative
modalities (adjectives, adverbs)
 ‗the most neutral, impersonal, type
of third person narration‘ (Fowler
1996: 177).
 There is no insight into the internal
states of the characters but simply a
description of their actions.
 It is this type of narration that is
perhaps most commonly associated
with stage directions in drama.
 Two other people had been in the lunchroom.
Once George had gone out to the kitchen and
made a ham-and-egg sandwich ―to go‖ that a
man wanted to take with him. Inside the kitchen
he saw Al, his derby hat tipped back, sitting on
a stool beside the wicket with the muzzle of a
sawed-off shotgun resting on the ledge. Nick
and the cook were back to back in the corner, a
towel tied in each of their mouths. George had
cooked the sandwich, wrapped it up in oiled
paper, put it in a bag, brought it in, and the man
had paid for it and gone out.
―Bright boy can do everything,‖ Max said. ―He
can cook and everything.
You‘d make some girl a nice wife, bright boy.‖
(E. Hemingway, The Killer)
 External Narration – Type D
 Takes into account the opinion and the
impressions of the narrator.
 The author pretends to have no access to the
internal states of characters and establishes this
pretence by the use of, characterised through
the use of non-factive expressions (words of
estrangement)
o I {believe, guess, think, agree, doubt, fear,
imagine} that it is raining
o It {appears, seems, is likely, is certain, is
probable} that it is raining
 more generally be seen as indicators of a limited
viewpoint, whether of character or narrator.
 The Narrator
 A writer‘s choice of a narrator determines the
point of view of the story—the vantage point
from which the story is told.
 The three main points of view are:
- omniscient
- first person
- third person limited
 Omniscient point of view
 This is a common form of third-person narration
in which the teller of the tale, who often appears
to speak with the voice of the author himself,
assumes an omniscient (all-knowing) perspective
on the story being told: diving into private
thoughts, narrating secret or hidden events,
jumping between spaces and times. Of course,
the omniscient narrator does not therefore tell
the reader or viewer everything, at least not until
the moment of greatest effect.
 Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a
suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that
no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it
understand it least, but it has been observed that no two
Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes
without coming to a total disagreement as to all the
premises. Innumerable children have been born into the
cause; innumerable young people have married into it;
innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of
persons have deliriously found themselves made parties
in Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why;
whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the
suit. The little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a
new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should
be settled has grown up, possessed himself of a real
horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards
of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers…
(Charles Dickens, Bleak House)
 First person (unreliable)
point of view

 is a narrative mode where a story

is narrated by one character at a time,
speaking for and about themselves. First-
person narrative may be singular, plural or
multiple as well as being an authoritative,
reliable or deceptive "voice" and
represents point of view in the writing.
 The narrators explicitly refer to themselves
using words and phrases involving "I"
(referred to as the first-person singular)
and/or "we" (the first-person plural), which
allows the reader or audience to see the
point of view (including opinions, thoughts,
and feelings) only of the narrator, and no
other characters.
 In some stories, first-person narratorsmay
refer to information they have heard from
the other characters, in order to try to deliver
a larger point of view.
 Other stories may switch from one
narrator to another, allowing the reader or
audience to experience the thoughts and
feelings of more than one character.
 ―It was times like these when I thought my
father, who hated guns and had never been
to any wars, was the bravest man who ever
lived.‖ - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

 ―I cannot but conclude that the Bulk of your

Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of
little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered
to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth.‖ -
Gulliver‘s Travels by Jonathan Swift

 ―I could not unlove him now, merely

because I found that he had ceased to
notice me.‖ - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
 Third person point of view
 The third-person narrative voices are
narrative-voice techniques employed
solely under the category of the third-
person view.
 The third-person subjective
 is when the narrator conveys the thoughts, feelings,
opinions, etc. of one or more characters. If there is
just one character, it can be termed third-person
limited, in which the reader is "limited" to the
thoughts of some particular character (often
the protagonist) as in the first-person mode, except
still giving personal descriptions using "he", "she",
"it", and "they", but not "I". This is almost always
the main character.

 The focal character, protagonist, antagonist, or

some other character's thoughts are revealed
through the narrator. The reader learns the
events of the narrative through the perceptions of
the chosen character.
 Third-person, omniscient
 Historically, the third-person omniscient perspective has
been the most commonly used; it is seen in countless
classic novels, including works by Jane Austen, Leo
Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot.
 A story in this narrative mode is presented by a narrator
with an overarching point of view, seeing and knowing
everything that happens within the world of the story,
including what each of the characters is thinking and
feeling. It sometimes even takes a subjective approach.
 The third-person omniscient narrator is the least
capable of being unreliable—although the
omniscient narrator can have its own personality,
offering judgments and opinions on the behavior of
the characters.
 Jane Austen's novel, Pride and
Prejudice, like many classic novels, is
told from the third person point of view:
 When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the
former, who had been cautious in her praise
of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister
how very much she admired him."He is just
what a young man ought to be," said she,
"sensible, good humoured, lively; and I never
saw such happy manners! -- so much ease,
with such perfect good breeding!"
 Third-person, objective
 The third-person objective employs a narrator who
tells a story without describing any character's thoughts,
opinions, or feelings; instead, it gives an objective,
unbiased point of view. Often the narrator is self-
dehumanized in order to make the narrative more
neutral. This type of narrative mode, outside of fiction, is
often employed by newspaper articles, biographical
documents, and scientific journals.

 The third-person objective is preferred in most pieces

that are deliberately trying to take a neutral or unbiased
view, like in many newspaper articles. It is also called
the third-person dramatic because the narrator, like
the audience of a drama, is neutral and ineffective
toward the progression of the plot.
 Quiz: What kind of storyteller
are you?

Question 1: What was your favorite subject in school?

a) Social Studies -- I love learning about history and politics!
b) English -- Writing and revising are my favorite!
c) Music -- Performing for an audience is my passion!
d) Gym -- I love team sports!

Question 2: If you had to play a sport, which would you pick?

a) Gymnastics -- I love the intensity of performing for a judge!
b) Baseball -- I love how strategic and historic the game is!
c) Soccer -- I want to make a highlight-reel play in front of millions
of fans!
d) Volleyball -- I love how every member of the team needs to
work together!
Question 3: If you could choose the format for a final
project, what would you pick?
a) A presentation to the class -- got to utilize my public
speaking skills!
b) A big paper -- I express myself best in writing and am not a fan
of public speaking.
c) A creative project like a video or poster -- I love to express
myself creatively!
d) A group project -- I'm great at collaborating with others.

Question 4: If you have an issue with an authority figure

(parent, teacher, boss, etc.), how do you address it?
a) I tell them directly, to their face if possible.
b) I write a letter, email, or text, so I don't lose my cool in the face
of authority.
c) I rally support from my friends/the world on social media
to pressure the authority figure to change their behavior.
d) I pull together a group of peers/siblings to coordinate a
response as a team.
Question 5: You just got engaged! How are you sharing the news?
a) Planning a party with my friends and family to tell everyone I
care about.
b) Sending an email/text to my friends and family -- this is big news,
it's important to get the wording of it just right!
c) Posting a picture of the ring on social media -- my followers will
love this!
d) All the people I care about were already here, they helped me
plan the proposal!
 Results:

Responded mostly "a": The Speaker

Speaking to lawmakers is the way to go! Whether it's giving testimony
in a committee hearing or in a one-on-one meeting, you are great at
facing authority and sharing your story live. Opportunities to look out
for are: committee hearings, advocacy days where you can meet one-
on-one or in a small group with your lawmaker, or calling
hotlines/lawmakers' offices to share your story.

Responded mostly "b": The Author

Publishing your written story will be the best way to make your voice
heard. Whether public speaking makes you nervous or you just express
yourself best in writing, written testimony is the medium for you!
Opportunities to look out for are: op-eds or letters to the editor in your
local paper, filling out surveys with your story, or writing emails/letters
to your lawmakers.
Responded mostly "c": The Influencer
Sharing your story on social media is the way to go! Whether it's writing
your story on an Instagram post or Twitter thread or recording videos for
Tiktok or Youtube, you'll be great at sharing your story to the masses to
rally support. On your personal account or an advocacy group's page,
you can make a broad impact by posting on social media.

Responded mostly "d": The Team Player

Whatever the medium, you thrive when you work with a team to rally
support for your cause. Being in a group allows you to play to your
strengths without bearing the burden alone. Opportunities to look out
for are: Signing petitions, attending advocacy days and rallies, joining
advocacy groups, attending community meetings, and filling out
surveys/sending emails to lawmakers.
 TASK
- Use mind maps to create a story
of yours.