Is it allowed in a first person narrative in a present tense writing style to break the 4th wall? I am curious as about your take on this, and if its effective. I have mixed feelings about it. It allows us to have a little insight into the narrator, but I am afraid it might take the reader out of the story. Has anyone used this technique with any success?
Is it allowed in a first person narrative in a present tense writing style to break the 4th wall?
As I understand it to be considered breaking the 4th wall, you have to have a character in the story, not the narrator addressing the readers directly.
Technically everything the narrator says is addressed to the readers.
I have mixed feelings about it. It allows us to have a little insight into the narrator, but I am afraid it might take the reader out of the story. Has anyone used this technique with any success?
Yes. Breaking the 4th wall is used all the time in superhero comics/movies with a comedic bent.
It is my understanding that when using the first person narrative, the narrator is one of the characters.
It is my understanding that when using the first person narrative, the narrator is one of the characters.
True. And I believe that's what breaking the 4th wall is. When a character starts talking to the audience. It happens all the time on "Modern Family."
In literature, the reader knows the author is telling the story so he accepts the author taking him out of the story to tell him something. Jane Austen did it. She'd say something like, "Dear Reader, if only so-and-so knew that…" I guess that's a sort of foreboding or maybe is needed for the reader to understand something. It's something I would never do.
True. And I believe that's what breaking the 4th wall is. When a character starts talking to the audience. It happens all the time on "Modern Family."
Actually, this is a modern misunderstanding (or possibly TV Tropes). Properly speaking breaking the fourth wall refers to any situation where the fiction recognizes the existence of or makes reference to the real world.
For example, when you see a destroyed star destroyer in the background of a space battle in Red Dwarf, that's breaking the fourth wall. A ship from Star Wars has no place in Red Dwarf, it's there as a joke for the audience, but it takes the viewer out of the fiction they are watching to think about the greater genre.
Having a character or narrator talk directly to the audience is a subtype of breaking the fourth wall called "direct address".
To the OP's question, breaking the fourth wall is fine, depending on your tone and genre, but it's often looked down on because it's a bit clumsy. Outside of comedy they are better ways of breaking the fourth wall without also interrupting a story's flow.
Actually, this is a modern misunderstanding (or possibly TV Tropes). Properly speaking breaking the fourth wall refers to any situation where the fiction recognizes the existence of or makes reference to the real world.
I've done this in my on mild way a couple times in my writing. I've had a character mention reading online stories by Honey Moon, but finding them too strange for her tastes. A couple times I've had characters state "This isn't some online sex story!"
I also have a habit of creating characters that like real world TV shows. "My Little Pony" mainly.
Actually, this is a modern misunderstanding (or possibly TV Tropes).
Actually, no it's not. It comes from theater, as in plays performed on a stage for a live audience.
The concept of the fourth wall in theater is much older than you think and the term itself goes back to the 17th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall
The earliest recorded breaking of the fourth wall in serious cinema was in Mary MacLane's revolutionary 1918 silent film Men Who Have Made Love to Me, in which the enigmatic authoress - who portrays herself - interrupts the vignettes onscreen to address the audience directly.[9]
And on the stage, breaking the 4th wall goes at least back to William Shakespeare.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/BreakingTheFourthWall/Theatre
It is my understanding that when using the first person narrative, the narrator is one of the characters.
Yes, but he's one of the characters telling the story to someone else at a later point. Narrative is always addressed to the audience.
As I understand it to be considered breaking the 4th wall, you have to have a character in the story, not the narrator addressing the readers directly.
I went back and reread the above. I think I see what you were trying to say. I agree if you were trying to say - it has to be the character in his role in the story that breaks the wall, not his role as narrator.
I agree if you were trying to say - it has to be the character in his role in the story that breaks the wall, not his role as narrator.
If the narrator is a character in the story (first person narrative by MC) yes, to break the 4th wall he must address or otherwise acknowledge the existence of the reader in his role as a character in the story, not in his role as narrator.
Anything is "allowed" when writing fiction. Even using concepts such as "the fourth wall" which is meant primarily for theatre rather than books.
The literary police can't throw you in jail, they can only throw peanuts from the gallery. However, if you're here asking that question, then it obviously doesn't feel right to you, in which case I'd suggest avoiding it.