It describes various types of novel on the basis of its narrative technique.

1. NARRATIVE
TECHNIQUES IN
FICTION
- Dr. Manisha Shah

2. Fiction
 Novel, Short Story & Novella
Any imaginative recreation of life in prose
Falsehood of sort
‘Untrue’- absolute sense & ‘true’ - universal sense
Legitimate untruth

3. Elements of Fiction
Common Name Literary Term
Central Idea Theme
Story Narrative
Incidents Plot
Persons Characters
Language Style
Setting Locale

4. POINT OF VIEW
First person
Second Person
Third Person
Who tells the story?

5. POINT OF VIEW
First person
Second Person
Third Person
Who tells the story?

6. First Person narrative
The narrator is involved in the story:
First person protagonist

7. Continue…
First person witness:
Dr. Watson
in SherlockHolmes

8. Continue…
First Person re-teller:
WutheringHeights
Events Narrated Ellen ‘Nelly’ Dean’s Account Mr. Lockwood’s Version

9. Third Person limited
 Close to one or two characters.
 The perception of the narrator.
 Often limited andbiased.
Eg.Harrypotter’s series

10. Omniscient Narrator
Author’s voice
Knows everything
More authentic & more realistic
Eg. George Eliot’s
Middlemarch.

11. A SERIES OF LETTER, DIARY,
DOCUMENT
 The story advances through letters, diary & documents.
 Characters communicate by the means of documents.
 Different styles of writing needs to be adopted
eg. Richardson’s Pamela& ClarissaHarlowe,
TheColorPurple by Alice Walker

12. CONVERSATION – DIALOGUE
More conversation
Less narrative
Story advances through dialogue
Seems like aplay or a movie script
Very rarely used
Often philosophical
Eg. TheLeapby Donald Barthelme

13. Interior Monologue
 Basedon the principles of psycho analyst, Freud.
 No chronological order is followed.
 Through this technique, a character’s personality, his past, hisrelations, problems and
present status and condition are easilyexposed to the readers.
 The thought process of the character is more important than incidents.
Eg.UlyssesbyJamesJoyce

14. Conclusion
 Multiple techniques
 Literary devices- ellipsis, flashback,flash forward, historical present, Chekov’s gun etc.
 Linguistic devices- figurative language, diction, style etc.
 Narration- a primary tool

15. THANK YOU