The Narrator is the entity within a story that tells the story to the reader. It is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind. The others are the Author and the Reader (or Audience). The Author and the Reader both inhabit the real world. It is the Author's function to create the alternate world, people, and events within the story. It is the Reader's function to understand and interpret the story. The Narrator exists within the world of the story (and only there^) and presents it in a way the Reader can comprehend. An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... There are several cities in the United States called Reader, see Reader (place) A Reader is a minor member of the clergy in some Christian churches; see Reader (minor orders). ... An audience is a group of people who participate in and experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. ...

The concept of the unreliable Narrator (as opposed to Author) became more important with the rise of the novel in the 19th Century. Until the late 1800s, literary criticism as an academic exercise dealt solely with poetry (including epic poems like The Iliad and Paradise Lost, and poetic drama like Shakespeare). Most poems did not have a narrator distinct from the author. But novels, with their immersive fictional worlds, created a problem, especially when the narrator's views differed significantly from that of the author. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... In mathematics, see epic morphism. ... The Iliad is, with The Odyssey, one of the two major Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, a blind Ionian poet. ... Title page of the first edition Paradise Lost (1667) is an epic poem by the 17th century English poet John Milton. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ...

A good story must have a well-defined and consistent narrator. To this end there are several rules that govern the narrator. It* exists in the world of the story, not in the world of the Reader or the Author. The narrator is a single entity with definite attributes and limitations. The narrator cannot communicate anything it does not encounter. In other words the narrator sees the story from the point it occupies within the fictional world. This is called point of view.

^ In non-fiction the narrator and the author can share the same persona, since the real world and the world of the story are the same.

* for clarity and by convention, the Author is referred to as 'he', the Reader is 'she' and the Narrator and the Work are 'it'.

Point of view

The narrator of any work has certain characteristics and limitations that define how the author can tell the story. Most importantly, a narrator can only tell the reader things that it has experienced. There are four kinds of point of view: first person; second person; third person, limited; and third person, omniscient. Both third person points of view and the first person point of view are common. The second person point of view is very rarely used.

First person

In a first person narrative, the narrator is a character in the story. This character takes actions, makes judgements and has opinions and biases. In this case the narrator gives and withholds information based on its own viewing of events. It is an important task for the reader to determine as much as possible about the character of the narrator in order to decide what "really" happens. This type of narrator is usually noticeable for its ubiquitous use of the first-person pronoun, "I". Example: In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. ...

• "I could picture it. I have a rotten habit of picturing the bedroom scenes of my friends. We went out to the Cafe Napolitain to have an apertif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard." from The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. The narrator is protagonist Jake Barnes.

The narrator can be the protagonist (e.g., Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels), someone very close to him, who is privy to his thoughts and actions (Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes), or an ancillary character who has little to do with the action of the story (Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby). A narrator can even be a character relating the story second-hand, such as Lockwood in Wuthering Heights. The Sun Also Rises is the first significant novel by Ernest Hemingway, first published in 1926, following a group of expatriate Americans in Europe during the 1920s. ... Ernest Hemingway, 1950 Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist and short story writer whose works, drawn from his wide range of experiences in World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, are characterized by terse minimalism, understatement and primer style... The protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often referred to as a storys main character. ... Gulliver could refer to: The main character of the story Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift Gulliver, Michigan, a place in the United States of America Actress Dorothy Gulliver A fictional character from the Nintendo Animal Crossing game series A band signed to Elektra Records. ... Gulliver Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a work of fiction by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Dr. John H. Watson is a fictional character, the sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, the fictional 19th century detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle. ... Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes (1854–1957, according to William S. Baring-Gould) is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ... The cover of the Scribner Paperback Fiction Edition, 1995. ... Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontës only novel. ...

The first person narrator is the type most obviously distinct from the author. It is a character in the work, who must follow all of the rules of being a character, even during its duties as narrator. For it to know anything, it must experience it with its senses, or be told about it. It can interject its own thoughts and opinions, but not those of any other character, unless clearly told about those thoughts.

In autobiographical fiction, the first person narrator is the character of the author (with varying degrees of accuracy). The narrator is still distinct from the author and must behave like any other character and any other first person narrator. Examples of this kind of narrator include Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and Kurt Vonnegut in Timequake. In some cases, the narrator is writing a book ("the book in your hands"), therefore it has most of the powers and knowledge of the author. Jim Carroll (born August 1, 1950 in New York City) is an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. ... The Basketball Diaries is a 1978 book written by American author Jim Carroll, in which he chronicles the decline of a promising young, white basketball player in New York City in the 1960s. ... Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ... Timequake is a semi-autobiographical work by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ...

The first person narrator may directly address the reader, though it is usually considered bad form unless there is a valid reason and explanation. Usually this is done when the intended audience is also a fictional character within the book. This is the case in novels written in the form of letters, known as epistolary novels, (Mary Shelly's Frankenstein) or as told to another character (Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint). An epistolary novel is a book written using a literary technique in which a novel is composed as a series of letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. ... Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley née Godwin (August 30, 1797–February 1, 1851) was an English writer who is, perhaps, equally-famously remembered as the wife of Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. ... Philip Milton Roth (born March 19, 1933) is a Jewish-American novelist who is known for his 1959 collection, Goodbye, Columbus, as well as his sexually-explicit comedic novel Portnoys Complaint (1969) and for his late-90s trilogy comprising the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997), I Married a... Portnoys Complaint book cover Portnoys Complaint (1969) is American writer Philip Roths fourth and, to date, still most popular novel, with many of its characteristics (ribald, comedic prose; themes of sexual desire and sexual frustration; a self-conscious literariness) having gone on to become Roth trademarks. ...

Second person

In this case, the narrator is supposedly the reader, and refers to itself with the second person pronoun, 'You.' This is the rarest of the points of view because, though theoretically possible, it does not work very well. A reader narrating to herself would never call herself, 'you,' and anything the narrator does is questionable. The example below makes this point.

Example:

• "You walk into the room and see a man sitting in a chair. You think his bald head and bulging stomach are quite attractive. You decide to kiss his bare feet." You are the narrator, and are apparently kinky.

This type of narration is most common in interactive fiction and Choose Your Own Adventure books. Role-playing games, could also be considered second person fiction. The second person format has been used in at least a few popular novels, most notably Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, and Tom Robbins' Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas as well as many short stories. When done well, the reader imagines herself within the action. Most stories written in second person are probably closer to first-person with "you" replacing "I". Zork, an early work of interactive fiction, running on a modern interpreter Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software containing simulated environments in which players use text commands to control characters. ... The first Choose Your Own Adventure book. ... This article is about traditional role-playing games. ... Italo Calvino (October 15, 1923 – September 19, 1985) was an Italian writer and novelist. ... If On a Winters Night a Traveler (Se una notte dinverno un viaggiatore) is a novel published in 1979 by Italo Calvino. ... Jay McInerney (born 1955) is an American writer. ... Image:Robbins. ...

An even rarer, but stylish version of second person narration takes the form of a series of imperative statements with the implied subject "you", as in this example from Lorrie Moore's "How to Become a Writer": In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ...

Decide that you like college life. In your dorm you meet many nice people. Some are smarter than you. And some, you notice, are dumber than you. You will continue, unfortunately, to view the world in exactly these terms for the rest of your life.

Third person, limited

This style of narrator is similar to the first person narrator, except for the notable use of the third person pronouns, he, she and it. The plot centers around a protagonist and covers only that with which the character is involved. But this character is not the narrator. The narrator is disembodied. It does nothing, casts no judgements, expresses no opinions and has no physical form in or out of the story. This narrator is privy to the thoughts, feelings, and memories of the protagonist, but of no other characters.

Example:

• "Stephen closed his eyes and held out in the air his trembling hand with the palm upwards. He felt the prefect of studies touch it for a moment at the fingers to straighten it and then the swish of the sleeve of the soutane as the pandybat was lifted to strike." A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce. The narrative is limited to the experiences of Stephen Dedalus.

A way to think of the third person narrator is as a camera peering over the shoulder of the protagonist, recording what transpires for the reader. This point of view is very similar to the first person point of view, but it allows information in a way not possible in the first person. This narrator can present details encountered, but not noticed by the protagonist. It can make observations that the protagonist would never make about himself, like the color of his eyes, or his personal failings. Any such details made by the narrator about itself would be highly dubious, but when given by the third person narrator, should be trusted. The narrator doesn't make blatant judgments; some subjective observations can seep in, but if the reader ever doubts or disagrees with the judgments of the narrator, she will dismiss the work as a whole. The third person narrator is inherently trustworthy. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel by James Joyce, published in 1916. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (February 2, 1882 – January 13, 1941) was an expatriate Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Stephen Daedalus was James Joyces early pen name, and the name of the main character in his early novel Stephen Hero. ...

Third person, omniscient

An omniscient narrator, as in more limited third-person forms, is also disembodied; it takes no actions, casts no judgments, expresses no opinions and has no physical form in or out of the story. But, being omniscient, it witnesses all events, even some that no characters witness. It is privy to all things past and present as well as the thoughts of all characters. The story can focus on any character at any time and on events where there is no character. The third person, omniscient narrator is the most reliable narrator; the reader should feel the narrator is truthful and forthcoming at all times. In literature, an omniscient narrator is a narrator who appears to know everything about the story being told, including what all the characters are thinking. ...

Types of narrator

An unreliable narrator is a ch force behind the power of first person narratives, and provide the only unbiased clues about the character of the narrator. To some extent ALL narrators are unreliable, varying in degree from trust-worthy Ishmael in Moby Dick to the severely retarded Benjy in The Sound and the Fury and the criminal Humbert Humbert in Lolita. Other notable examples of unreliable narrators include Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, and Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. In literature and film, an unreliable narrator (a term coined by Wayne Booth in his 1961 book The Rhetoric of Fiction [1]) is a first-person narrator, the credibility of whose point of view is seriously compromised, possibly by psychological instability, or a powerful bias, or else simply by a... Moby-Dick book cover Moby-Dick – the hyphen in the title is present in the original edition – is a novel by Herman Melville. ... The Sound and the Fury is a well-known novel written by American author William Faulkner. ... Humbert Humbert is the adopted pseudonym of the main character and unreliable narrator of the 1955 novel Lolita, by Russian-born American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. ... Lolita Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1955. ... The cover of the Scribner Paperback Fiction Edition, 1995. ... Holden Caulfield is the fictional teenaged protagonist in J.D. Salingers novel The Catcher in the Rye, first published in 1951. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Unreliable narrators aren't limited to fiction. Memoirs, autobiographies and autobiographical fiction have the author as narrator and character. Sometimes the author purposely makes his narrator persona unreliable such as Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries. A memoir, as a literary genre, forms a sub-class of autobiography. ... For music albums named Autobiography, see Greek eauton = self, bios = life and graphein = write) is a form of biography, the writing of a life story. ... This Side Of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a famous example of an autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a novel based on the life of the author. ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... A persona is a social role, or a character played by an actor. ... Jim Carroll (born August 1, 1950 in New York City) is an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. ... The Basketball Diaries is a 1978 book written by American author Jim Carroll, in which he chronicles the decline of a promising young, white basketball player in New York City in the 1960s. ...

A writer's choice of narrator is crucial for the way a work of fiction is perceived by the reader. Generally, a First-Person narrator brings greater focus on the feelings, opinions, and perceptions of a particular character in a story, and on how that character views the world and the views of other characters. If the writer's intention is to get inside the world of a character, then it is a good choice, although a third-person limited narrator is an alternative that doesn't require the writer to reveal all that a first-person character would know. By contrast, a third-person omniscient narrator gives a panoramic view of the world of the story, looking into many characters and into the broader background of a story. For stories in which the context and the views of many characters are important, a third-person narrator is a better choice.

See also

• Narrative
• Literary theory
• Literary criticism
• Point of view (literature)
• Film theory
• Point of view (disambiguation page)

In non-technical terms, no matter what the context (whether scientific, philosophical, legal, etc) a narrative is a story, an interpretation of some aspect of the world that is historically and culturally grounded and shaped by human personality (per Walter Fisher). ... Literary theory is the theory (or the philosophy) of the interpretation of literature and literary criticism. ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... In literature and storytelling, a point of view is the related experience of the narrator — not that of the author. ... Film theory seeks to develop concise, systematic concepts that apply to the study of film/cinema as art. ... A point of view, viewpoint or POV, is the following: On a given topic, a point of view is a cognitive perspective. ...

External reference

• http://www.netauthor.org/pov.html