Analysing fiction: Characterisation and narrative voice

Question 1

What is characterisation?

Answer 1

The way writers create characters + make them believable.

When writing about texts easy to treat characters as real people.

Question 2

What should I try to remember?

Answer 2

The author is creating characters using language.

Question 3

What are examples of how the author creates the character?

Answer 3

What are the characters like? How do you know this?
What do characters say(dialogue)?
What do the characters do?
How are the characters described?
How are they seen by other characters?

Question 4

What are typical contrasts between characters?

Answer 4

Characters who think versus characters who feel.
Characters who talk versus characters who act.
Sociable characters versus solitary characters.
Predators who take advantage of people versus characters who are victims.
Characters who want 1 thing versus those who want another.

Question 5

What are the typical contrasts within a character?

Answer 5

A person who says 1 thing, and does another.
A character who sacrifices something important to pursue a goal of their own.
A character who wants two opposing things.

Question 6

What different types of narrative voice are there?

Answer 6

First person: character within story telling the story.
Second person: not commonly used by writers.
Third person: story told by voice of someone not a character in story.
Third person omniscient: story told by voice who shows know more than characters in story narrator=all knowing.