CLASS 8 · LEARNING KNOWLEDGE

Short stories and narrative perspective – Basic principles

How it works

Short stories are brief, mostly fictional narrative texts with few characters, a clear plot, and often an open ending. They focus on a decisive moment. Narrative perspective determines from which point of view the story is told: omniscient (all-knowing and often commenting), personal (close to the perception of one character), neutral (without insight into thoughts and feelings), or as a first-person narrator from the first-person perspective. The choice of perspective influences how close readers are to the events and to the characters' feelings.

Note
Narrative perspective indicates from which point of view a story is told and how much readers learn about the thoughts, feelings, and knowledge of the characters. Omniscient narrators know more than the characters, personal narrators stay close to one character, neutral narrators describe mainly outwardly, and first-person narrators report from their own point of view.

An example

In which sentence is the first-person narrator perspective clearly recognizable?

In the sentence ‹Ich öffnete vorsichtig die Tür und spähte hinaus.› the first-person narrator perspective can be recognized because the personal pronoun ‹Ich› is used and the action is described from the point of view of this character.

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50 Exercises

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Own explanation and own practice exercises by AmyMath. Subject reference framework: German. The topic assignment may vary by federal state.