04_Biblica_1_A_Ossandon_Layout 1 05/11/12 12:18 Pagina 379 379 BARTIMAEUS’ FAITH “Point of view” belongs as well to the semantic field of opinions and evaluations: it refers to a particular way or attitude of consid- ering a matter. The same wideness of meaning can be found when narrative critics talk about the point of view within a story 7. 1. About the Narrative Point of View in General The basic axiom of narrative criticism says that the same story can be told in different ways. To some extent this way of narrating depends on the point of view from which the story is told. There is a point of view in every narration. The best example of how narrative point of view works comes from cinema. A camera can move slowly or fast, bringing something into focus or remaining at a distance. It can impersonate the percep- tions of a character or it can see everybody from an external position. Analogously, using words instead of images, in written narrative there is a position from which the story is told. This rather imprecise description requires further remarks. Genette established the necessity of distinguishing between “mode” and “voice”. In fact, one must not identify who speaks (voice) with where the focus of perception (mode) is. The voice corresponds to the identity of the one who narrates, that can be someone external to the story or one of the characters. If the narrator is one of the characters, he or she can narrate in first or in third person. On the other hand, the mode does not answer the question of who narrates, but the question of how the story is told, at which distance and from which perspective 8. The distinction between mode and voice makes it possible to differentiate between the voice of the narrator and the point of view that he may take to provide the information. The voice of the nar- 7 There has been a lot of theoretical discussion on the notion of narrative point of view. However, its complexity depends strongly on the need of de- scribing features developed by modern narrative, mostly absent from the Gospels. This allows us to go on, omitting an exposition of the different the- ories. See P. PUGLIATTI, Lo sguardo nel racconto. Teorie e prassi del punto di vista (Bologna 1985); G. YAMASAKI, Watching a Biblical Narrative. Point of View in Biblical Exegesis (London 2007) 1-41. 8 G. GENETTE, Figures III (Paris 1972), chap. 4; see also G. GENETTE, Nou- veau discours du récit (Paris 1983).