Prose

Definition:

From the Latin word ‘prosa’, part of the phrase ‘proversa oratio’, meaning ‘straightforward speech/ a natural flow of speech’. Prose is written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure. Written in full grammatical sentences, which then constitutes paragraph. It is commonly used, in newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, broadcasting, film, history, philosophy and many other forms of communication.

Types of Prose:

Different critics have different ideas, categories, and definitions of fiction; but most agree on two basic types of prose: 

         Non-Fiction

         Fiction

1. Non-Fiction: can also be called “informational” material. This type of prose has a practical utility in that it provides factual information. Nothing is make-believe (imaginative) in these types of materials. There exist two broad categories of non-fiction:

• Literary Non-Fiction: has elements of fiction like the use of vivid descriptions, engaging a dramatic writing style, or poetic language.  More specific examples of this category would be: biographies, autobiographies and memoirs, histories, essays and articles, and reviews
• Functional Texts: use direct language with straight forward meaning. For instance; give instructions, show directions, explain rules, provide other information that helps the reader complete procedures; often use illustrations or graphics. Examples of this category include: recipes, directions, schedules, menus, brochures, maps, applications, photographs/real pictures, charts, graphs, and maps captions.

2. Fiction: a vague and general term for a work partly or totally imaginatively contrived, usually in prose. However, authors can also choose to include factual information in a made-up story. The term does not normally cover poetry and drama though both are a form of fiction in that they are molded and contrived – or feigned. It is often referred to as narrative prose-prose which tells a story. Its different types include:

• Short Story: a prose narrative of indeterminate length, but too short to be published separately as novels or novellas usually are (marked by shortness and density). According to Edgar Allan Poe, it is a story that concentrates on a unique or single effect and one in which the totality of effect is the objective. Early pioneers (Sir Walter Scott, Washington Irving, Hoffmann, Hawthorne) set the stage for Poe — who is regarded as the originator of the modern short story.
• Novella: Italian for ‘tale, piece of news’. Originally a novella was a kind of short story, a narrative in prose of the genre developed by Boccaccio. It differs from the short story as well as the novel in length—being a kind of middle distance—but more importantly in substance. The general characteristics of the novella show this difference:

     - unlike the short story, it has a kind of epic quality;

     - unlike the novel, it is restricted to a single event, situation or conflict;

     - it concentrates on the single event and shows it as a kind of conflict;

     - the event ought to have an unexpected turning point so that the conclusion surprises even while it is the logical outcome;

     - it may contain a concrete symbol which is the steady point at the heart of the narrative. Good examples of novella are: The Old Man and the Sea, Animal Farm. 

• Novel: The word itself is derived from the Italian novella, “a tale, a piece of news”. Broadly speaking, the term denoted a prose narrative about characters and their actions in what was recognizably everyday life and usually in the present, with the emphasis on things being ‘new’ or a ‘novelty’. And it was used in contradistinction to ‘romance’. In the 19th c. the concept of ‘novel’ was enlarged and applied to a wide variety of writing. The common element of all definitions and all sub-genres of novel is that it is an extended piece of prose fiction. What does ‘extended’ mean? It means that the novel tells a story of considerable length about the actions and lives of imaginary people. In other words, in novel, unlike short-story, characters and plot are fairly developed. A novel may contain subplots running along the main one (subplots are independent related stories). It has a number of sub-genres depending upon the content and the method of execution.

Sub-genres of the Novel:

During the development of the genre, a number of specialty novels, or sub-genres, have developed. The most important, or at least the most common, include:

• Romance: A romance novel is a work of extended prose fiction with a theme of love and an optimistic conclusion. It may be 'didactic,' but this is usually incidental. It is a European form which has been influenced by such collections as The Arabian Knights. It is usually peopled by characters (and thus with events) who live in a courtly world (the court of the kings and queens) somewhat remote from the everyday. This suggests elements of love, adventure, the marvelous and the "mythic". Some examples include Don Quixote, Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, Conrad's Lord Jim.
• Gothic novel: This is a type of romance which was very popular in the 18^th century and at the beginning of the 19^th. Most were tales of mystery and horror, intended to chill the spine, curdle the blood. They contained a strong element of the supernatural and the now-traditional "haunted house" props. Settings are their distinguishing feature: medieval castles (or similar locations) with secret passages, dungeons, winding stairways, a stupefying atmosphere of doom and gloom, a proper complement of spooky happenings and, occasionally, spectral visions. There is usually at least one mysterious character, and some kind of dark secret.  Examples include the works of Poe, the Brontës, some of Dickens (Bleak House, Great Expectations); Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
• Epistolary novel: These are novels in the form of letters, which were especially popular in the 18^th century; it has not been uncommon since then to use letters to constitute part of a novel. Examples: Pamela, Humphrey Clinker.
• Bildungsroman: German word meaning ‘formation novel’. This is a term used to describe a novel which is the account of the youthful development of the hero or heroine. Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dickens, David Copperfield are best known, although the novel is not always autobiographical.
• Fantasy novel: A kind of fiction which is not primarily devoted to depicting realistic events, but aims at developing an imaginary world. Mythological creatures and medieval-style kingdoms spread across imaginary lands are typical elements of fantasy novels. Best known examples these days include: J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ring trilogy and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
• Science fiction: A popular modern branch of fiction often set in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future. Sci-fi novels imagine the worlds of far-flung future or alternate universes. Science fiction books can have a historical setting, but most are set in the future and deal with the ramifications of technological and scientific advancement. Examples could include Gene Roddenbury’s Star Trek or Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Literary Elements of Prose Fiction:

are the parts that make up a story. They interact with each other in unity to convey the essence of a literary work to the reader. Literary elements include:

1-      Setting: represent the time and place (when and where) the literary work takes place. Settings may to a degree affect the characters’ actions, emotions, and even choices. Details of the setting may include descriptions of: time of day or year, weather, scenery, furniture, clothing, dialects etc.

2-      Characters: the elements (humans or animals) that interact in a storyline and keep the action moving in the process. A literary work can include a plethora of characters or be restricted to a minimalist number of characters within a story. The different types of characters include:

• The protagonist
• The antagonist

Both the protagonist and antagonist are major characters.

• Minor characters
• Round characters (dynamic)
• Flat characters (static)

3-      Characterization: the way in which the writer reveals what a character is like in terms of physical descriptions, actions, thoughts, personal history, and reactions. Combined together these descriptions clarify a character’s personality and how it changes throughout the story.

4-      Plot: is the sequence of events in a narrative. The structure of the plot is the events through which the story is organized. The plot is generally divided into parts that include:

1. Exposition
2. Inciting Incident
3. Development/ Rising Action/ Complication
4. Climax/ Conflict/ Crisis can either be: external or internal.
5. Falling Action/ Resolution
6. Denouement

Certain special techniques of plot can be employed by the writer like:

• Suspense: the creation of a sense of tension or excitement.
• Foreshadowing: clues or hints which help expect something may occur or happen in the story.
• Flashback: interrupts the sequence of events to relate something that happened in the past and that in some affects the present events.
• Surprise ending: a conclusion to the story that the reader does not expect.

5-      Point of View: involves who tells the story and how it is told. The point of view of a story can sometimes indirectly establish the author’s intentions.

6-      Narrator: The person telling the story who may or may not be a character in the story.

Ø  First-person: the narrator takes part in the action. Being one character in the story means that the knowledge and vision he/she has is limited.

Ø  Second person: the reader is addressed directly by the narrator as though s/he is part of the story (i.e., “You walk into your bedroom.  You see clutter everywhere and…”).

Ø  Third Person: is an unnamed narrator. He remains a detached observer wherein he is not a character in the story. In this case he does not supply a character’s perspective but merely reports events and leaves it to the reader to supply the meaning.

Ø  Omniscient: All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives), also known as 3^rd person omniscient narrator. He knows what each character is thinking and feeling, not just what they are doing throughout the story.

Ø  Semi-omniscient: also referred to as limited 3^rd person omniscient. While the omniscient narrator has full access to the thoughts and feelings of all characters, the semi-omniscient narrator is restricted to a single character. So, he allows the reader to explore the plot through the thoughts and feelings of that specific character.

7-      Themes: are the central idea, message, insight, or an underlying meaning expressed through a literary work. Themes could be major or minor. Major themes are ideas the authors gravitate back to repeatedly. Minor themes, on the other hand, are presented occasionally in the work. Themes can be stated directly or implied, either ways, they need, nonetheless, interpretation to be uncovered.

Literary Devices and Techniques:

In addition to the different devices and techniques explored in the second chapter, there are also:

• Caricature: a description or characterization that exaggerates or distorts a character's prominent features, usually for purposes of mockery. For example, a cartoon of a gaunt Abraham Lincoln with a giant top hat, a very scraggly beard, and sunken eyes could be considered a caricature.
• Motif: a recurring structure, contrast, or other device that develops a literary work's major themes (see below). For example, shadows and darkness are a motif in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, a novel that contains many gloomy scenes and settings.
• Rhetorical Question: a question asked not to elicit an actual response but to make an impact or call attention to something. For example: “Will the world ever see the end of war?” is an example of a rhetorical question.
• Sarcasm: a form of in which it is obvious from context and tone that the speaker means the verbal irony opposite of what he or she says. Saying “That was graceful” when someone trips and falls is an example of sarcasm.