The Power of Point of View

Tag: psychological

S.B.L. Book Review Session on “Perspective Criticism” (part 7): Response to Yamasaki’s Response

by STEVE BLACK   I am beginning to think that I am not sure that I find Yamasaki’s concept of “point of view character” to be useful. I prefer simply to think of “point of view” rather than “point of view character.” In essence, point of view is the point of entry that the narrator gives to… Read More ›

S.B.L. Book Review Session of “Perspective Criticism” (part 4): Response to Black Critique

by GARY YAMASAKI   Steve Black’s review of Perspective Criticism reflects a keen grasp of the fact that the essence of point of view relates to the perspective through which readers are led to experience the events described. This is nowhere more evident than in his treatment of the Mark 1 account of Jesus’ baptism, where Steve… Read More ›

S.B.L. Book Review Session on “Perspective Criticism” (part 3)

by STEVE BLACK   Gary Yamasaki’s Perspective Criticism uses “point-of-view analysis” as a means to clarify puzzling passages in the Bible. Through point of view, the reader experiences characters as remote or close. If they are viewed as close, then they are also viewed sympathetically, and this can result in a merger of sorts between reader… Read More ›

Rejoinder to Tannehill’s post on Ideological (or Evaluative) Plane of Point of View (part 3)

by GARY YAMASAKI   In this post, Robert Tannehill provides some helpful correctives to the portrait of ideological point of view presented in my earlier post. However, there are also some portions of his post against which I would like to provide some push-back. Tannehill is surely right when he asserts that “all the other planes contribute… Read More ›

The Ideological Plane of Point of View: “so crucial, yet so misunderstood” (part 1)

by GARY YAMASAKI   The concluding paragraph of this post mentions that much work needs to be done to clarify the role of the ideological plane of point of view in a storyteller’s efforts to dictate through whose point of view their audience experiences a given event, and this post constitutes a first step in that regard. Of… Read More ›

Sympathizing with a Most Unexpected Character in Mark

by STEVE BLACK   It has been argued that point of view can be used as a means of getting the reader to sympathize with a given character. Yamasaki argued additionally “if readers are led to have a subjective experience of a character—another way of saying ‘viewing the events of the story line through a character’s point… Read More ›

Psychological-Plane Point of View and the Movie “Open Water”

by CHARLES AARON   In the 2004 indie film Open Water, a young couple, Susan and Daniel, take a vacation to escape the stress of their lives and jobs. They go to a tropical location for scuba diving. Due to a mistake by the employees of the charter boat that has taken them out, Daniel and Susan… Read More ›

Another word on Mark 6:47-52. . .with a focus on “Focalization”

by STEVE BLACK   I wish to consider Mark 6:47-52, in the light of some of the conversation on this blog concerning it. I should note that my interest at this point is not so much the staging of this passage in a live presentation as it is a narratological analysis. Focus has been made in… Read More ›

(quarter)YEAR in REVIEW. . .and a look ahead to a New Year of Perspective Criticism

by GARY YAMASAKI   This blog was launched three months ago, and from the beginning, it has been intended as a site for the collective development of biblical scholarship. Specifically, it exists as a venue for dialogue on the interpretive significance of the point-of-view crafting in biblical narratives. So, week after week, ideas on this topic… Read More ›

Responding to How Seaman Would Craft a Performance of Mark 6:49-52

by GARY YAMASAKI   Over the past month, Leon Seaman has contributed two posts addressing ways in which attention to point-of-view dynamics impacts his performance of Mark. The earlier one–Perspective in Live Performance: To Embody or Not to Embody?–focuses on how he embodies certain characters–that is, mimics their speech and gestures–and does not embody others, and… Read More ›

Rejoinder to ‘How Perspective Criticism Actually Works (demonstrated by an SBL paper on the point-of-view crafting of Mary at the Tomb in John 20)’

by ROBERT TANNEHILL   It is good to ask whether the different planes of point of view reinforce each other or limit each other, as Gary Yamasaki argues in the post entitled How Perspective Criticism Actually Works contrasting the spatial point of view of following with the psychological and informational. However, in doing this I think… Read More ›

Helping an Audience to Get the Point (of View) in Performance

by LEON SEAMAN   In my last post, Perspective in Live Performance: to Embody or Not to Embody, I briefly told how perspective criticism helped me block Mark’s baptism and transfiguration scenes for performance. A simple “s/he/they saw” may be a clue to whose viewpoint is to be embodied or not. Of course, point of view… Read More ›