First-person narrative

A first-person narrative (also known as a first-person perspective, voice, point of view, etc.) is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from that storyteller's own personal point of view, using first-person grammar such as "I", "me", "my", and "myself" (also, in plural form, "we", "us", etc.).^[1]^[2] It must be narrated by a first-person character, such as a protagonist (or other focal character), re-teller, witness,^[3] or peripheral character.^[4]^[5] Alternatively, in a visual storytelling medium (such as video, television, or film), the first-person perspective is a graphical perspective rendered through a character's visual field, so the camera is "seeing" out of a character's eyes.

A classic example of a first-person protagonist narrator is Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847),^[1] in which the title character is telling the story in which she herself is also the protagonist:^[6] "I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me".^[7]

This device allows the audience to see the narrator's mind's eye view of the fictional universe,^[8] but it is limited to the narrator's experiences and awareness of the true state of affairs. In some stories, first-person narrators may relay dialogue with other characters or refer to information they heard from the other characters, in order to try to deliver a larger point of view.^[6] Other stories may switch the narrator to different characters to introduce a broader perspective. An unreliable narrator is one that has completely lost credibility due to ignorance, poor insight, personal biases, mistakes, dishonesty, etc., which challenges the reader's initial assumptions.^[9]

^ ^a ^b "Overview: First-person narrative". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
^ Grammarly, https://www.grammarly.com/blog/first-second-and-third-person/#:~:text=We%2C%20us%2C%20our%2Cand,%2C%20my%2C%20mine%20and%20myself."
^ Cite error: The named reference Ohio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Literature Glossary - First-person Narration". Shmoop. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
^ Stanzel, F.K. (13 March 1986). A Theory of Narrative. CUP Archive. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-521-31063-5.
^ ^a ^b "Jane Eyre Narrator Point of View". Shmoop. Archived from the original on 28 September 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
^ "Examples of Writing in First Person". YourDictionary. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
^ Evers, Stuart (13 May 2008). "The dangers of first-person narrative". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
^ Wiehardt, Ginny (20 March 2017). "How to Recognize and Create an Unreliable Narrator". The Balance. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

[Oxford-1] "Overview: First-person narrative". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

[2] Grammarly, https://www.grammarly.com/blog/first-second-and-third-person/#:~:text=We%2C%20us%2C%20our%2Cand,%2C%20my%2C%20mine%20and%20myself."

[Ohio-3] Cite error: The named reference Ohio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[4] "Literature Glossary - First-person Narration". Shmoop. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

[Stanzel1986-5] Stanzel, F.K. (13 March 1986). A Theory of Narrative. CUP Archive. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-521-31063-5.

[schmoop1-6] "Jane Eyre Narrator Point of View". Shmoop. Archived from the original on 28 September 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

[7] "Examples of Writing in First Person". YourDictionary. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

[8] Evers, Stuart (13 May 2008). "The dangers of first-person narrative". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

[9] Wiehardt, Ginny (20 March 2017). "How to Recognize and Create an Unreliable Narrator". The Balance. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

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