Norman Friedman: Point of View in Fiction

Summary of Norman Friedman’s Point of View in Fiction

In our time, one of the most significant changes in fiction, is the disappearance of the author. Compared to Victorian novels, in which the author was very present, today a story should rather tell itself through the impressions of the characters and not by the author. This way of telling a story is, according to Schorer, the only way for the author to create an aesthetic relationship between him and his work. Today, the technique of “Point of View” is becoming one of the most useful distinctions in fiction.
Literature uses language as its medium, and because of that, it expresses more ideas and attitudes, than other arts, but also does it show weaker images. The author is constantly concerned with the problem, what effects his own attitudes and values have on the reader. That is why the question of point of view is so important in fiction. Every different way of telling a story has a different effect on the...