The Importance of point of view in any text: First Person viewpoint.
Consider the following ideas concerning the use of the first-person point of view or perspective. Remember to ask yourself the key question, ‘where is the speaker speaking from and how does this affect his/her viewpoint? ‘ You may also like to ask yourself whether they are speaking from a position of power or vulnerability?
Ideas about the first person POV.
Subjective viewpoint, reality filtered according to the narrator’s interests
Admiration /Wanting to report an incident/ responsibility
Unreliable narratorhttp://www.tusitala.org.uk/great-expectations-chapter-8-miss-havisham-desperation-makes-authors-of-us-all/ /prejudice /bias/bigotry
Witness account, ‘Truthful’, Validation, Pride, Humility
Testimony. Giving voice to experience directly.
Confession, Admission of responsibility or guilt
Catharsis/Release/Healing/Revenge
Immediacy/strong sense of presence/animation of experience powerful
Authenticity/truthfulness/ Inconvertible evidence
Limitation. Can only ‘see’ from a fixed place and knowledge/Personality or age may limit what is understood? For example a child narrator or retrospective child?
Recollection/Remembrance/Editing possible if a past perspective/Selective details
Transformation of experience into a story.
Gives personality of the speaker/narrator/Colours/informs/drenches perspective with personality / their account credible or incredible
Secrecy/Hidden revelations/Epiphany/moment of being or revelation
Deception/Misleading/Self-concealment/Diversionary tactics/Avoidance
Seductive point of view/uses wit/facility for expression to mislead
Shocking confession or witnessing account may fragment the coherence or structure of a narrative. Coherence could suggest falsity
Intimacy/Creates closeness/Friendship
Identification/Healing/Intimacy/Reader forms relationship with speaker
First person narrator maybe a form of self-persecution, admission of guilt?
Apologetic
Writing as reclamation of control
Self-justification. Exonerating self.
Self-critical, Revision of events
Detached, Repressed, Ostensibly objective or dispassionate
Hysterical, Agitated, Emotional
Reasoned, Rational, Fair
Sensitive, Mature, Immature, Wise
Comical, Witty, Self-deprecating, Self-effacing
Sinister, Insinuating, Conniving
Makes Reader Collude, Party to the revelation
Writing as form of Self-discovery
Very stimulating and helpful resource – am going to use this to look more closely at the books I’m studying. Thank you! (From authentically grateful POV!) Sarah