Is there a name for when the narrator (in a literary text) talks to the reader directly?
Is there a name for when the narrator (in a literary text) talks to the reader directly?
I'm talking about mainly third person narrators in fiction, like for example, "if you have felt/heard/seen X then...". What is it called?
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I believe that's called narration.
I think that might be too broad for what OP is asking, though I don't know the answer. Their example has the narrator directly addressing the audience in a manner that acknowledges the existence of a reader for them to be addressing. Specifically they refer to a "you" which would be the reader. It's a bit like the term "4th wall breaking" in cinema although not quite the same as that either. Just "narration" means an entity, be it a character, or the author, or voice of God is telling the story and as it says in your link, is something present in all written literary works, but they won't necessarily acknowledge their audience, which is the unique characteristic they're trying to identify.
How about the term “aside”?
Another comment said it.
I guess only OP could tell us if that sounds like what they were talking about but I don't think that would be it either. That appears to be a device for theatre, which solves the problem of revealing characters' thoughts when the medium would make that otherwise difficult because of the absence of a narrator. In theatre (or film or other visual mediums), a narrator is optional and if a playwright doesn't opt to use one then it can create a problem that an aside can fix, but in literature a narrator is a prerequisite and so the problem isn't there for an aside to fix and characters' thoughts can be transmitted through narration freely if the author chooses and there isn't a need for an acknowledgement of the reader in doing so.
It most likely is. I know we colloquially would refer to this as breaking the 4th wall but I don't know the real terminology for this in written literature. I do like all of the various answers everyone has provided. It's made for some interesting reading.