Understanding Narrative Voice in Literature: Short Course

One aspect of style in prose writing is the narrative voice, or narrative perspective or point of view as it is sometimes called. However, what does it mean and how can you identify it in a text?

In literature, who is telling the story affects how a story can be received by the reader. Novels, short stories and the like are crafted by writers to produce an affect, and part of that crafting is in HOW a story is told; WHO is telling the story.

In this course we will learn what is the narrative voice, what are the different types of narrative voice, their characterisations, and how to identify them in literature.

Who is this course for?

This course is aimed at students studying A-level and International Baccalaureate English Literature.

This course will also be useful to GCSE students wanting to get an 8 or a 9.

Or anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of literature to gain a fuller understanding of what they are reading.

Course Content:

• What is narrative voice/perspective?

• Characterisation of narrator and narrative voice

• Multiple examples to practice your knowledge

• Going through the analysis together and understanding what evidence will tell you what narrative voice the text is written in.

This course will go through the basics including definitions and then show you how to apply this knowledge to your own work. Follow along with the course, pausing the videos to complete the practice examples. But the videos don't stop there, after you have made your notes we will go through and analyse together. I will pose questions and make comments that you can use to expand your analysis and perhaps find a new interpretation of the text.