Point of view

Point of view is the position or perspective from which events and information are presented. It shapes what is visible, knowable, and emphasized.

Narrator: A voice or agent that presents a narrative’s events and information. The narrator is the source through which a story’s perspective reaches its audience.
First-person peripheral narrator: A narrator who participates in a story but is not its central character. This narrator presents the central character from a participant’s limited vantage.
Objective narration: Narration that reports observable actions and speech while withholding direct access to characters’ thoughts. It limits access to interior perspectives rather than presenting a character’s inner account.
Point-of-view shot: A film shot that presents a scene from a character’s apparent visual position. Film uses this shot to align the image with a character’s viewpoint.
Narrative voice: The distinctive style and stance through which a narrative is told. Voice conveys a narrator’s attitude and manner, beyond the position from which events are seen.
Omniscient narrator: A narrator with broad access to events, characters’ thoughts, and information beyond any one character’s knowledge. Omniscience allows a narrative to move beyond a single character’s perspective.
Subjective camera: A film technique that presents an image from a character’s apparent visual position. It gives a literal visual viewpoint, unlike the broader narrative perspective of point of view.
Perspective (visual arts): A system for representing three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Visual perspective organizes depicted space around a viewer’s position.
Focalization: The selection and restriction of narrative information according to a character’s or observer’s perspective. Focalization distinguishes whose perceptions govern what the narrative discloses.
Free indirect discourse: A narrative technique that blends third-person narration with a character’s language or thoughts without quotation marks. It shifts the narrative’s perspective toward a character while retaining third-person grammar.

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