Transcript Australian Family Stories

EDU 21ACL – Australian Children’s Literature
Australian Family Stories
Lecture 2
Voice and Perspective in
Family Stories
© La Trobe University, David Beagley, 2006
Issues
Narrative Voice
In particular …
1. Use of 1st person narrator
2. What it is and how it works
3. Advantages / disadvantages
4. Use in a family story
 typical features
 distinctive features
Narrative and authorial choices
An author’s choices of literary technique affect what
is told, how it is told and, thus, how it is read and
received
These techniques are usually associated with writing
for older readers
Typical literary devices that can be chosen include:
Voice
Person
Tense
Voice
What is Voice?
Reader’s impression of the “one” telling the story
How is Voice conveyed?
Personal voice
 By the language characteristics of the “speaker”
 Vocabulary, idiom, accent, grammar
 Emotions, expression, tone
Social or Cultural voice
 By the issues expressed
 The social context of that expression
 Identity of the personal voice
 Cultural markers, that distinguish that voice from others
Voice
Narrative Voice:
 The perspective of the narrator who tells the story
within the author’s creation
 May be unidentified, and could be …
 Authorial voice - the actual credited writer of the
text who makes deliberate choices about what to
include or exclude
 Character voice - a specific character from within the
story who narrates the story from her/his personal
perspective
How are these different voices conveyed?
Person
Person - the identity of the SUBJECT of the
sentence
 first person - I & we
 second person - you
 third person - s/he & they
This defines the relationship of the speaker to the
audience
- includes Singular and Plural
Tense
Tense - the time frame of the VERB or action of the
sentence
 Present - am, is, are
 Past - was
 Future - will be
This locates the action in the narrative stream
Advantages of direct character voice
Direct character voice:
 Usually 1st person, though can be 3rd
Advantages:
 immediacy; sense of being present in action
 strong sense of character and personality
 appeal to readers through personal identification
 readers discover plot from the inside
 partial knowledge of one viewpoint creates “detective
story” structure
Disadvantages of direct character
voice
 lack of broader view / perspective
 limitation to what can be explained
 limitation of vocal and understanding of the narrator




(character)
deeper meanings difficult
narrative restricted to what happens to narrator
need to explain/justify self disclosure or reason for
telling the story
bed to bed story (all events covered sequentially)
Perspective & Point of View
Distinction between point of view and perspective
 Perspective is physical (how much can be seen)
 Point of view is contextual and judgemental (what
do I want to see)
Some examples
 So much to tell you - John Marsden
 also Dear Miffy, Letters from the Inside, Winter, War and
Ellie chronicles
 Stella Street series - Liz Honey
 Hating Alison Ashley - Robin Klein
 also Penny Pollard series
 How to make a bird- Martine Murray
 Jinx - Margaret Wild (verse novel)
 Other suggestions?