{"id":270,"date":"2017-06-14T14:11:15","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T13:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=270"},"modified":"2017-06-15T13:42:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T12:42:30","slug":"authors-narrators-and-focalizers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=270","title":{"rendered":"Authors, narrators and focalizers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Narratives never\u00a0tell us\u00a0the\u00a0<\/em>story, they only give us a version<\/em> (or versions<\/em>) of the story. What they narrate, in other words, always comes from a particular point of view; the actions and characters they present are always presented to us from one or more specific angles. These angles or points of view sometimes belong solely to a specific character (or characters), but they can also reflect the belief systems, ideologies and institutional practices of specific societies, or groups within society.<\/p>\n

[Add links to Sam\u2019s visual illustration\u00a0of how the \u201csame\u201d thing can look very different from different angles<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Given this crucial truth about narratives, whenever we wish to analyse a narrative, we should always seek to establish the point(s) of view from which it tells its story.\u00a0A useful way of doing this\u00a0is to ask: who<\/em> is telling the story and whose<\/em> story is being told? In order to answer these questions accurately, we need to distinguish between authors and narrators, between different kinds of narrators, and between narrators and focalizers.<\/p>\n

Please click on each of the following links in turn to learn more about\u00a0each of these categories and how to analyse them:<\/p>\n