A word or phrase for "zoomed in" and "zoomed out" narrative

Solution 1:

Easily the best question ever posted on the site, and I adore your conception and description of prose as zoomed-in and zoomed-out, close-up v. wide shots. I and I'm sure all writers constantly think about this fundamental tension - should I write most fundamental tension - in writing, and you're very insightful to concretize it - and it's amazing there's no specific word for this.

Just a thought on your question c

c) The dichotomy of the two?

Regarding writing that is highly aware of and uses well the dichotomy between the two, I would use the word from painting

chiaroscuro

(Go see some Caravaggio {perhaps a better phrase there is go get kicked in the face by the Caravaggio horse} if not fully gut-familiar with this.)

Of course, you can use chiaroscuro to talk about or emphasize the dichotomy between any two "values", it's the word you use when you want to describe that an artist recognises and clarifies two extremes of some quality (of course, in painting, "lighting".)

I suggest that chiaroscuro works very well when describing prose with, well, a chiaroscuro of close-upness .. perhaps the phrase "a chiaroscuro of scale" almost captures what you mean. If there was a SWR "X" for what you're saying, "X chiaroscuro" works well.

Solution 2:

So many good words! a) Pedantic, florid. b) Prosaic, straightforward, hemingwayesque... etc.

Anyways, since you're uninterested in all that, you might be looking for purple prose and beige prose. They specifically describe prose that is too blahblahblah and too blah, respectively.