In literary studies one differentiates in four narrative perspectives, which offer different perspectives on the narrated history. We can divide between the so-called I-narrator, a personal, neutral, and the authorial narrator. To the last mentioned narrative perspective it is to go in this contribution.
If we speak of an authorial narrator, we mean that the narrator, whom we encounter in a literary text, is certainly omniscient. An authorial narrator is not part of the narrative or of the actual text, but considers the happenings from without.
Since an auctorial narrator is omniscient and thus knows everything about history, he is often referred to as an omniscient narrator, and appears in the narrative as the author or mediator, whereby he is outside the narrative reality.
These characteristics enable the authorial narrator to show connections between the individual actions of a story and reveal the interior of the protagonists as well as all the deuteragonists and other characters.
An auctorial narrator thus knows what the acting figures think, know, have done and will continue to do in the future, which makes them appear omnipresent at the spatial and temporal level. An authorial narrator thus knows all the connections, the narrated history and the fictional world.
Furthermore, an authorial narrator can change between the perspectives of the individual characters and describe the inner as well as the outward view of a fact, since he himself knows the world of thought and the feeling world of the protagonists, whereby he is also able to influence the behavior of the protagonists comment and continue to evaluate.
The auctorial narrative perspective is almost divine, and an auctorial narrator often confronts the reader as a “person,” as he responds to the reader at times, commenting on the events from outside, and sometimes directing himself directly to us. In the texts, the third person prefers singular (he / she).
Actorial narrator in the overview
An auctorial narrator knows everything and is thus omniscient, which is why this narrative perspective is often referred to as an omniscient narrator.
The authorial narrator knows all the details about the protagonists and can therefore portray connections, flashbacks and future events.
Furthermore, it is possible for the authorial narrator to show the interior of the individual characters and thus also to reveal and name the thoughts and emotions of the protagonists.
The perspective of the narrative can thus be described as divine, even if the authorial narrator sometimes pretends not to know everything.
The narrative of the authorial narrator is usually reported. This means that he has a temporal and spatial distance to the event and is viewed from the outside, which is logical in that it is informed of all future and past events (→ epic distance).
Important note: The authorial narrator should under no circumstances be confused with the author of a story. The author has designed the text and created a fictional world. The authorial narrator is a product of the author and not himself.
What does an auctorial narrator do?
An auctorial narrator can appear to us as an ally or a confidant when he speaks to us directly from the text and does not belong to the actual action itself.
This also means that everything that he tells us in the course of a narrative must be accepted as true, even if the authorial narrator can sometimes lead the reader through questions or statements to the Iree. In principle, however, his assertions are always credible and we have no reason to doubt them in the course of a narrative.
As a reader, we are forced to record the story through the perspective of the authorial narrator, which can have an interesting effect, which is not quite apparent in other narrative perspectives.
An authorial narrator can influence us enormously as a reader since he is with us together outside of history and has the same distance to the happenings as we do.
Actorial narrator using an example
Finally, we will illustrate by means of an example what makes an auctorial narrator and how we can see that the narrative perspective in the text is auctorial.
Clothes make people, Gottfried Keller
The authorial narrator in Keller’s work clothes make people, and in the first instance, he reveals himself in the first sentence by letting us know that the little tailor is poor and what is in the pocket of the protagonist.
What is crucial here is that the tailor does not tell us these things, or through an action,
