Perspective and Time in Fiction: Class 4. First Person continued.

READING: Bouncing by Stuart Ross.

What is the relationship between the narrator and the story or events? 

What is relationship between the narrator and the people described? 

How much does the narrator know? What is (or is not) reflected in the telling?

What do they explicitly say vs. what is implied.

*

First person:

protagonist, 

witness (eg. Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes, Nick in The Great Gatsby) 

can be part of the story (like examples above) or describes story that happened to someone else or that they are only on the margins

reteller (“I” narrates a story told by someone else)

The narrator could be telling the story in a variety of ways:

1. thinking it, reliving it in memory, reflecting

2. writing it in a private journal or diary as read by no-one else or 
      else intended for someone else (eg. a report – cf Captain’s Log        in Star Trek)

      (e.g. Book of Negroes)

3. self-consciously creating a literary structure for a future reader–         the narrator is aware of this.

4. speaking the story aloud

5. recording the story as it happens

How much time has elapsed? Does the narrator know what has happened since the event and the telling?

How different is s/he now? What’s happened since?

What’s his/her attitude toward his/her former self?

To what extent is s/he still emotionally involved?

To what extent does the story’s tension arise out of different between difference between charater’s attitude and remembering narrator?

How much can the narrator be trusted? Vested interest? Bias? Education/lack of perspective? 

1. Write.  Person is dying in their bed. They have a secret/confession/hidden knowledge to impart. It could be something they were involved in directly or tangentially, or something they heard or knew, something someone else told them. Something they know.
2. Write. Spirit animal: what animal would they want to come back as?  If they came back a second time? Why? Now write their story. Begin with “This is my story.” (cf. Sheila Heti, My Life is a Joke)