Narrative Perspective and Point of View — Flashcards

Grade 10 · English · Flashcards

Key terms for POV analysis in Grade 10 English literature.

Flashcards

Point of view (POV)

The narrator's position and relationship to the story — determines what the reader knows and how much to trust the narrator.

First-person narration

Narrator uses 'I'; is a character in the story; creates intimacy but knowledge is limited to their experience.

Third-person limited

External narrator follows one character closely — knows only that character's thoughts and feelings.

Third-person omniscient

All-knowing narrator — can access any character's mind, any location, any event in the story world.

Second-person narration

Uses 'you' to address the reader directly — immersive and unusual; implicates the reader in the action.

Unreliable narrator

A narrator whose account is compromised by bias, self-deception, limited knowledge, or intentional deception.

Dramatic irony

When the reader knows something a character does not — often created by limited POV.

Narrative distance

How far the narrator is from events in time or emotionally — affects objectivity, tone, and reliability.

Stream of consciousness

A first-person technique that mimics unfiltered thought flow — used by Woolf, Joyce, Faulkner.

Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby)

Paradigmatic unreliable first-person narrator — his self-proclaimed honesty is itself ironic.

Retrospective narration

First-person narration of past events — the narrator has hindsight but may also have nostalgia or bias.

Free indirect discourse

A technique where third-person narration blends with a character's thoughts, blurring the line between narrator and character.

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