What a Point of View Can and Cannot Do · 视点能做到与不能做到的事
Every point of view has a limit
- Point of view contributes to what narrators can and cannot provide, based on their level of involvement and intimacy with the details, events and characters.
- So the useful question is not "which type is it?" but "what is unavailable here?"
- What a narration cannot reach is where its meaning usually is.
An all-knowing narrator may know every character’s thoughts; a first-person narrator can know surprisingly little about their own.
每一种叙述视点都有其限度
- 叙述视点决定了叙述者能提供什么、不能提供什么,这取决于他们与细节、事件和人物之间的卷入程度与亲近程度。
- 因此有用的问题不是"这是哪一类?",而是"这里有什么是拿不到的?"
- 叙述所触及不到的地方,通常正是它的意义所在。
全知叙述者也许知道每个人在想什么；第一人称叙述者却可能连自己的心思都没弄明白。
The most useful question about point of view is... · 关于视点最有用的问题是……
What a narration cannot reach is where its meaning usually is. · 叙述无法触及之处通常是其意义所在。
First-person narrators are inside
- First-person narrators are involved in the narrative.
- Their relationship to the events and the other characters shapes their perspective.
- Narrators may also be characters, and that role influences everything they report.
第一人称叙述者在里面
- 第一人称叙述者卷入在叙事之中。
- 他们与事件及其他人物的关系,塑造了他们的视角。
- 叙述者也可能同时是人物,而这一身份影响他们所讲述的一切。
A first-person narrator's relationship to the other characters shapes their perspective. · 第一人称叙述者与其他角色的关系塑造了其视角。
They are involved in the narrative, so the relationship is part of the reporting. · 他们参与叙事，因此这种关系是报道的一部分。
Third-person narrators are outside observers
- Third-person narrators are outside observers.
- Their knowledge ranges from observational to all-knowing, and that range shapes their perspective.
- Their outside perspective may not be affected by the events — a detachment worth noticing when the events are terrible.
第三人称叙述者是外部观察者
- 第三人称叙述者是外部观察者。
- 他们的知识从仅可观察到无所不知不等,而这一范围塑造了他们的视角。
- 他们的外部视角可能不受事件影响——当事件极其可怕时,这份超然值得注意。
What does this point of view make unavailable? · 这个视点使什么变得不可获得？
Sort each narration by what the reader cannot reach. · 根据读者无法触及的内容对每段叙述进行排序。
Select all · 所有 the CED's statements about third-person narrators. · 选择CED关于第三人称叙述者的所有陈述。
It is · 它是 first-person narrators who may also be characters. · 第一人称叙述者才可能是角色。
Point of view governs what a narrator can provide, based on their level of ____ and intimacy. · 视点决定了叙述者能提供什么，取决于其____程度和亲密感。
Involvement and intimacy with the details, events and characters. · 与细节、事件和人物的参与及亲密感。
Naming the point of view is not explaining its function. "It is first-person" is identification. The function is what that position makes unavailable — a first-person narrator cannot report what another character thinks, so everything the reader believes about that character has passed through one interested pair of eyes.
点出叙述视点不等于解释它的功能。"这是第一人称"只是指认。功能在于那个位置使什么变得拿不到——第一人称叙述者无法报告另一个人物在想什么,因此读者关于那个人物所相信的一切,都经过了一双利益攸关的眼睛。
Range is a spectrum, not two boxes
- Observational third-person reports only what could be seen or heard.
- All-knowing third-person enters any mind at will.
- Most narration sits between, and where it sits — whose mind it enters, whose it does not — is the analysable choice.
知识范围是一条光谱,不是两个盒子
- 仅可观察的第三人称只报告能看到或听到的东西。
- 无所不知的第三人称可以随意进入任何人的内心。
- 多数叙述处在两者之间,而它处在哪里——进入谁的内心、不进入谁的——正是可供分析的那个选择。
Match each narration to what the reader is denied. · 将每段叙述与其被拒绝的内容匹配。
Naming the denial is the function; naming the type is only identification. · 命名拒绝是其功能；命名类型仅是识别。
A point-of-view pass
- Name the person. Name whose thoughts are accessible and whose are not.
- Ask whether the narrator is affected by what they report.
- Then say what the reader is therefore denied — that denial is the function.
叙述视点检查
- 说出人称。说出谁的想法可以进入、谁的不能。
- 问叙述者是否受其所述之事的影响。
- 然后说出读者因此被剥夺了什么——那份剥夺就是它的功能。
A third-person narrator enters the mother's thoughts throughout, and never once the daughter's. The reader therefore knows the mother's reasons and only the daughter's behaviour — so the daughter seems unreasonable, and the story's final turn is the reader discovering that this was a choice of access, not a fact about her.
一位第三人称叙述者通篇进入母亲的内心,却一次也没有进入女儿的。读者因此知道母亲的理由,而只看到女儿的行为——于是女儿显得不可理喻,而这篇小说最后的转折,正是读者发现这原是一种进入权限的选择,而不是关于她的事实。
Point of view governs what a narrator can and cannot provide, by involvement and intimacy. First-person narrators are involved and may be characters; third-person narrators are outside observers whose knowledge ranges from observational to all-knowing and who may not be affected by the events. The function is what the reader is denied.
叙述视点通过卷入程度与亲近程度,决定叙述者能提供什么、不能提供什么。第一人称叙述者卷入其中,并可能同时是人物;第三人称叙述者是外部观察者,其知识从仅可观察到无所不知不等,并且可能不受事件影响。功能在于读者被剥夺了什么。