autodiegetic

Autodiegetic is a term in narrative theory used to describe a narrator who is also a character within the story and who tells the events from their own perspective, typically in the first person. The concept contrasts with narrators who exist outside the diegetic world or who recount events through a more distant or omniscient voice.

Autodiegetic narration foregrounds the subjectivity of the protagonist and can influence how truth, memory, and causality are presented. The narrator’s knowledge is usually limited to their own experiences, though they may incorporate memories of others. Reliability varies: an autodiegetic narrator may be wholly trustworthy, or they may be intentionally misleading or unreliable, inviting readers to read against the grain.

Common examples include Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye and Huck Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both telling their stories in the first person as participants in the events. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is another widely cited example in which the unnamed narrator recounts his experiences within the narrative world. Autodiegetic narration is often contrasted with heterodiegetic narration, where the narrator does not participate in the story, such as an all-knowing external voice.

See also: heterodiegetic narrator; homodiegetic narrator; metadiegetic narrator; unreliable narrator; narrative viewpoint.