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Point of view
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From: Johnson, Deidre <djohnson>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 98 21:19:00 PST
So I'm wondering not only what people think about the effectiveness of point of view in books we have already mentioned but also what are other books in which you find point of view is used to great effect.>>
I've been trying to think about the different ways pov can serve a novel, and still don't have a lovely, cohesive theory, only rambling thoughts. I'm reading Donna Jo Napoli's _Zel_ right now; here, pov (at least based on the opening chapters) seems designed to trigger a re-vision of the familiar; again, the idea of examining something from the inside out, and specifically something that's traditionally been seen without exploring interior emotions. Since I haven't finished the book yet, I don't know if her goal is primarily that re-vision, so that I'll never look at Rapunzel the same way, or whether there's more of a character study involved.
This seems very different from the way pov is used in Anne Fine's _Step by Wicked Step_, which is actually 3rd person pov, but with each chapter narrated by one of five children; individual chapters are from limited omniscient pov, almost giving the effect of a first person narration. Each chapter tells of a child's experience when her/his parents divorce, and each child's story is very different in tone and outcome. Here, it seems as if the different narrators all work to underscore theme: parents' control over children's lives and the many different ways divorce can affect a child.
On the other hand, Swindell's _Stone Cold_ seems to use pov primarily to enhance plot drama -- we move back and forth between a homeless boy's perspective and that of the killer stalking the homeless, with growing tension as the two narratives converge.
All of this seems a far cry from Edith Nesbit's use of changing narrators
(is that the same as changing pov? ) in some of her fiction around the turn of the century, where (if I'm remembering correctly), the different children involved in an adventure would alternate as narrators of different chapters of the book. (For character development? Variety?)
And no one's even mentioned Dorris's use of pov in _Morning Girl_ -- or did I miss a post somewhere?
Deidre Johnson djohnson at wcupa.edu
Received on Fri 20 Nov 1998 11:19:00 PM CST
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 98 21:19:00 PST
So I'm wondering not only what people think about the effectiveness of point of view in books we have already mentioned but also what are other books in which you find point of view is used to great effect.>>
I've been trying to think about the different ways pov can serve a novel, and still don't have a lovely, cohesive theory, only rambling thoughts. I'm reading Donna Jo Napoli's _Zel_ right now; here, pov (at least based on the opening chapters) seems designed to trigger a re-vision of the familiar; again, the idea of examining something from the inside out, and specifically something that's traditionally been seen without exploring interior emotions. Since I haven't finished the book yet, I don't know if her goal is primarily that re-vision, so that I'll never look at Rapunzel the same way, or whether there's more of a character study involved.
This seems very different from the way pov is used in Anne Fine's _Step by Wicked Step_, which is actually 3rd person pov, but with each chapter narrated by one of five children; individual chapters are from limited omniscient pov, almost giving the effect of a first person narration. Each chapter tells of a child's experience when her/his parents divorce, and each child's story is very different in tone and outcome. Here, it seems as if the different narrators all work to underscore theme: parents' control over children's lives and the many different ways divorce can affect a child.
On the other hand, Swindell's _Stone Cold_ seems to use pov primarily to enhance plot drama -- we move back and forth between a homeless boy's perspective and that of the killer stalking the homeless, with growing tension as the two narratives converge.
All of this seems a far cry from Edith Nesbit's use of changing narrators
(is that the same as changing pov? ) in some of her fiction around the turn of the century, where (if I'm remembering correctly), the different children involved in an adventure would alternate as narrators of different chapters of the book. (For character development? Variety?)
And no one's even mentioned Dorris's use of pov in _Morning Girl_ -- or did I miss a post somewhere?
Deidre Johnson djohnson at wcupa.edu
Received on Fri 20 Nov 1998 11:19:00 PM CST
