Unseen Prose terms

All-knowing, able to enter the mind of any character - he/she/they etc but recounts the story through the eyes of usually just one character, revealing their thoughts, feelings etc to the reader

Third person omniscient perspective

Still uses he/she/they etc but the story is recounted through the eyes of a single character so the reader is privy to the inner thoughts and feelings of one character

Third person limited perspective

Where the voice of the third person narrator breaks through and directly addresses the reader

Third person - intrusive narrator

Recounts events as he/she experiences them. They are sometimes unreliable narrators or naive

First person narrative perspective

Here the third person narrator takes on the tone of a first person voice e.g. ‘He wondered how she was. Did he dare to ask?’ Free indirect discourse creates an intimacy and sympathy with the character because we are privy to his/her thoughts and feelings.

Free indirect discourse

A narrative style where we seem to be inside the character’s head, so that ideas/thoughts and so on seem fragmented, sometimes incoherent, as our thoughts, emotions, and sensory impressions often are. In a prose text, this isn’t random - the writer will very deliberately shape the stream of consciousness to reveal particular characteristics and concerns as well as providing insight into a character’s mind

Stream of consciousness

Story within a story

Framed narrative

Multiple narrators

(Letters)), diaries

Epistolary form

Here the actual words are quoted in speech marks and tagged. The narrative comment can describe a character’s tone of voice or body language, developing characterisation. Presents the actual word so the dialogue seems more immediate and real.

Direct speech/thought

The accompanying explanation and comment from the narrator are omitted - the words spoken stand alone; they are untangled e.g. ‘How are you?’ ‘I’m fine’. Effect: can quicken the pace of the dialogue/focus on what is being said

Free direct speech

The exact words spoken are not quoted; instead, the narrator reports what was said. He asked her how she was. He asked me how I was. Effect: can distance the readers from the characters.

Reported/indirect speech/ thought

Punctuation? Politeness features e.g. commands, colloquialism, taboo words, interruptions. Rhythm - disjointed, abrupt, controlled, calm. Use of interrogatives, imperatives, declaratives, exclamatives to suggest personality and power?

Dialogue

Passage structure - echoes, repetition, analepsis, prolepsis, external description, introspection (inner lives), different voices, gaps and silences, chronological account/non chronological account, use of motifs, contrasts/juxtapositions.

Structure