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Literature vocabulary · Narration and Point of View

Narrator

Meaning in literature, with examples

/nəˈreɪtə/nounCore term

In literature, narrator means: The voice that tells the story to the reader. It may be a character in the story or an outside voice, and it is not the same as the author.

In Turkish: anlatıcı

How it is used

A key term in analysis. Critics ask who the narrator is, how much the narrator knows and whether the narrator can be trusted. In audiobooks, 'narrator' also means the person who reads the book aloud. The verb is narrate.

Example sentences

  1. The narrator is a ten-year-old girl, so we only see what she understands.

  2. Don't confuse the narrator with the author; they often hold very different views.

Common collocations

  • first-person narrator
  • unreliable narrator
  • omniscient narrator
  • the narrator tells us
  • audiobook narrator
  • point of viewThe position from which a story is told, which decides whose eyes we see events through and how much we learn, for example first-person or third-person.
  • first-person narratorA narrator who is a character in the story and tells it using 'I', so readers see events only through that character's eyes.
  • omniscient narratorA third-person narrator who knows everything about the story, including the thoughts and feelings of all the characters and events in different places and times.
  • unreliable narratorA narrator whose account cannot be fully trusted because he or she lies, misunderstands events, is mentally unstable or is too young or biased to see clearly.
  • narrativeA story or account of connected events, and the way it is told; also used as an adjective for anything that tells a story.

More terms: Narration and Point of View

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