The narrative voice is the one that "tells" the story in a text.
To understand what narrative voice is, we must understand what the concept of narration refers to. A narrative is the process and result of telling something : in this way, it can be a story or a novel, for example.
The one who, in the story in question, relates the events that unfold, acts as narrator . It is important to keep in mind that the narrator is not the author of the work: the person who writes a story also invents a narrator, who is the one who "tells" the story in the text.
The narrative voice, in this framework, is the voice of this narrator. Through his voice, the narrator can star and be part of the events, or be just a witness who recounts the events but is not involved in the development of the story.
Types of narrative voice
In a broad sense, it is possible to differentiate between three kinds of narrative voice from the point of view of grammar : first person (the story is told from the perspective of an "I" ), second person (appeals to a "you"). » ) or in the third person ( "he" ).
It is important to know, in addition to everything stated above, another important series of data in relation to the narrative voice, such as the following:
-In literary works, there may be a single voice of that type or even several.
-The usual thing is that these works only have a narrative voice, but, throughout history, we find many books where there are different ones. An example of the latter would be the novel "Pedro Páramo" by Juan Rulfo.
Depending on its characteristics, it is possible to classify the narrative voice in different ways.
Homodiegetic vs. extradiegetic
Regarding the participation of the narrative voice in the story , the homodiegetic narrative voice is the one that narrates from within the story, and may or may not correspond to the protagonist. The autodiegetic narrative voice , on the other hand, corresponds to the central character and participates in the events. The extradiegetic narrative voice , finally, is located outside the narrative.
Continuing with the case of the extradiegetic narrative voice, the narrator, by not placing himself within the story, can be equiscient (knows the same as one of the characters ), deficient (has less knowledge than the characters) or omniscient (knows everything in the story, even more than the protagonists).
The narrative voice beyond literature
Not only in literature, we find narrative voices. We can also find them in television series and even in movies. A clear example of this is the Spanish series "Tell me how it happened", which reviews the life of a family, the Alcántara, over the last few decades.
Each of the chapters of this production, one of the longest running on the small screen in the country with eighteen seasons, begins with the voice of a narrator. Specifically, it is the adult voice of one of the protagonists of the series, the third child of the family, Carlos. And this is the one in charge of going into each chapter into one of the adventures, adventures or events that happened to his parents, his grandmother, his brothers, his friends, his neighbors in the San Genaro neighborhood. or himself.
The character is played by the young actor Ricardo Gómez, but the adult narrative voice is provided by the also famous performer Carlos Hipólito.