What You Need to Know

Key Concept Diagram

First-person narration immerses readers in the narrator's subjective experience

Free indirect discourse blends the narrator's voice with the character's inner thoughts

Characterisation through interior monologue reveals a character's feelings and motivations

Literature about marginalised groups can challenge prejudice and build understanding

Empathy through literature has been linked to greater social cohesion and tolerance

Key Vocabulary

Empathy

Understanding and sharing the feelings and perspectives of others

Interior monologue

A literary technique representing the continuous flow of a character's thoughts

Free indirect discourse

A narrative mode blending the narrator's voice and a character's thoughts without quotation marks

Marginalised

Describing groups who are treated as unimportant or excluded from mainstream society

Knowledge Check

Select the correct answer for each question. Click "Check Answer" to see if you are right.

Question 1

Free indirect discourse allows readers to:

Read dialogue between characters Identify the genre of a text Understand the plot summary Access a character's inner thoughts blended with the narrator's voice

Question 2

Literature about the experiences of marginalised groups can:

Challenge assumptions and build empathy for diverse experiences Reinforce prejudice Have no effect on readers Only be enjoyed by members of those groups

Question 3

Interior monologue in a novel is most effective for:

Describing the setting of the story Revealing the complex inner emotional life of a character Summarising the plot Introducing secondary characters

Empathy Through Literature