Terms Related to Fiction - Point of View and Irony
point of view –
the perspective from which an author tells a story
narrator –
the person through whose perspective, knowledge, and voice a story is told
speaker –
the narrator of a poem
persona –
the personality a narrator assumes; a mask used in Ancient Greek theater by the actors playing a particular role
first-person narrator (first-person point of view) –
a story told from the viewpoint of the author of the story as a character in the story using the word I to tell the story; may be omniscient (all knowing) or limited (knows only information from that character’s perspective)
second person narrator (second person point of view) –
a story told in second person (you); may be from the perspective of a character in the story who knows everything (omniscient narrator) or who has limited knowledge (limited narrator); not generally used in fiction
third person narrator (third person point of view) –
a story told in third person (he, she, it); may be from the perspective of a character in the story who knows everything (omniscient narrator) or who has limited knowledge (limited narrator)
objective narrator (objective point of view) –
relates the story as a sequence of events without commenting or judging the characters or their action or situation
stream-of-consciousness –
a style of writing that writes how a person is thinking; written-down thoughts.
unreliable narrators –
a narrator who is either not omniscient or is deliberately misleading the reader
