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?