Point of View

The point of view in The Seventh Function of Language is shifting and unstable. It is narrated by an almost-omniscient, unnamed "I" who mostly sticks to a close third person perspective, sometimes getting into the thoughts of the characters, but at other times admitting that he doesn't know what they are thinking. There is a wide variety of different characters, situations, and perspectives, and there are times when the novel is narrated in first person by characters, and others when the narrator makes extensive contextual commentary. There are long sections of the novel where the narrator explains semiology and linguistics, or provides a theoretical basis for some of the ideas that the novel relies on. There are also sections that are in the form of letters, and extended dialogues. There are also sections in which the reader observes many characters reacting simultaneously to an event...