ENGL7516 Chap.3 Point of View, Narrative Consciousness and Detail
Point of View, Narrative Consciousness and Detail
A method hidden in a topic title
The fourth session is titled point of view and narrative consciousness, followed by four words joined by arrows: observation, detail, description, information. Read as a sequence, it describes what every narrating mind does. It notices far more than it reports, chooses one thing, renders that thing in words, and trusts the reader to infer what was never said.
Point of view is the question of whose mind is making those choices.
Why a single detail persuades
The secondary reading is the chapter on details from Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer. It opens with a story about a workshop in which a participant's invented account was believed because of one domestic detail, and draws the lesson that details are what persuade us someone is telling the truth.
Prose describes the ideal detail as surprising yet plausible, apt but not pointedly symbolic, and she follows Chekhov in preferring a few small particulars to long description and in showing a character's state of mind through action.
Four modes of consciousness
The recommended reading, Keith Oatley's chapter on narrative modes of consciousness and selfhood, distinguishes four aspects of consciousness: simple awareness of perception and feeling, the inner stream of memory and association, thought that directs action, and awareness of the self in relation to others.
A narrator can dwell in any of these, and the choice shapes the texture of the prose.
Oatley also describes stories as simulations that run on minds, which explains why the choice of consciousness governs what a reader feels.
The primary readings at work
One story by David Foster Wallace does almost nothing but accumulate detail around a reclining poet, letting a list of honours sit beside the facts of his body until the effect is deflation.
Ottessa Moshfegh's story uses a flat retrospective first person that keeps asserting its truthfulness and revising its memories.
A story by Li Yiyun narrates a childhood in the present tense while an adult voice repeatedly cuts in with what the child would learn only later.
What to practise
Take one scene from your draft and climb the ladder deliberately: list what the viewpoint character could observe, choose the single detail this mind would notice, render it plainly, and check what a reader can now infer.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Observation, detail, description and information as a sequence
- 02
Choosing the detail a particular mind would notice
- 03
Why details persuade a reader of truth
- 04
The qualities of a well-chosen detail
- 05
Accumulation as an alternative to the single detail
- 06
Four aspects of consciousness a narrator can render
- 07
First, close third and distant third person
- 08
Prolepsis and the double consciousness of a child narrator
Worked example · free
Climb the ladder from observation to information
- 2Write an observation of the scene.
- 2Select one detail this character in particular would notice.
- 2Render the detail as a sentence of description.
- 2State the information the reader infers.
Key terms
- Point of View
- The consciousness through which a story is perceived and told, and the distance at which the reader stands from it. It decides what can be noticed, known and felt.
- Telling Detail
- A single specific particular, chosen by a narrating mind, that conveys character, situation or feeling without any statement of them.
- Close Third Person
- Narration in the third person that stays near one character's perceptions and thoughts, while keeping the ability to describe what the character cannot see about themselves.
- Prolepsis
- A flash forward in which the narration reveals what will happen later, often used by an adult narrator recalling childhood to add knowledge the younger self lacked.
- Stream of Consciousness
- The rendering of a mind's flow of memories, images and associations as they arise, one of the aspects of consciousness Oatley identifies in narrative.
- Unreliable Narrator
- A narrator whose account the reader has reason to question, whether through bias, limited knowledge or open revision of their own memories.
Point of View, Narrative Consciousness and Detail FAQ
What does observation, detail, description and information mean in practice?
It is a sequence of choices. The narrator observes a scene, selects one detail that this particular mind would notice, describes it in specific words, and the reader draws information from it, such as class, grief or time passed, that the sentence never states outright.
How do I choose between first person and third person?
Ask what the reader must feel and know. First person gives the narrator's selections and blind spots together and raises the question of trust. Close third person shares perceptions while allowing the narration to see around the character. Distant third reports behaviour and leaves the mind to inference.
Why are brand names discouraged in description?
The details reading calls them a lazy way of placing a character and notes that they date a work quickly, while conceding that some consumer choices reveal a great deal. Use one only when it tells the reader something specific about this person that a plainer detail could not.
Do I have to read the Oatley chapter?
It is listed as recommended rather than required. It is worth reading for its four aspects of consciousness, which give a precise vocabulary for describing point of view choices in your craft analysis, and for its account of stories as simulations run on the reader's mind.
Assessment move
Choose one paragraph from each of the three primary readings for the week and identify which rung of the ladder it lingers on, and which of Oatley's four modes it renders. Then rewrite one paragraph of your own twice, once in first person and once in close third, and note which details had to change. The comparison will give you material for the point of view section of your final craft analysis.
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