narration and point of view

Narrator

One who recounts a story

Internal narrator

Narrator is a character within the work

External narrator

Narrator is not a character within the work

First-person narrator

Internal narrator who uses pronouns “i” and “we”

Second-person narrator

Uses pronoun “you”

Third-person narrator

uses pronouns “he, she, it,” usually external narrators

Omniscient narrator

Narrator that describes inner thoughts and feelings of multiple characters

Limited narrator

Narrator that only relates the thoughts and feelings of one character (the central consciousness)

Unreliable narrator

Work encourages reader to be suspicious with narrator’s relation of events

Intrusive narrator

Third person narrator that disrupts the narrative to speak directly to the reader in direct address

Voice

Verbal aspect of point of view, source of a story’s words

Focus

Visual aspect of point of view, point from which people, events, and other details are viewed

Point of view

Perspective from which people, events, and other details in a work are viewed

Style

Distinctive manner of expression through diction, rhythm, imagery, etc

Tone

Attitude a literary work takes toward its subject, or that a character in the work conveys

Irony

Situation or statement characterized by a significant difference between what is expected versus what actually happens

Auditor

Imaginary listener within a literary work

Dialogue

Words spoken by characters in a literary work

Central consciousness

Character whose inner thoughts are revealed through third person limited narrator