Prose

By: Jasmin Diwata Pascual

Prose

• The essay is a short literary composition in prose dealing with a single matter usually from a personal point of view. Thus, it is revelatory of the author’s state , opinions, prejudices, moods, and , in general, his personality.

• Essays may either be formal or informal but there are more specific subdivisions

The Essay

Reflective essays

Narrative or story essay

Descriptive essay

Biographicalessay

Nature essay

Periodical Essays

Critical Essay

Didactic essays

• Reflective Essays are serious and dignified and usually employ aphorisms, i.e., wisdom couched in memorable sentences.

• Narrative or story essay make use of an incident to illustrate an idea or a theme.

• Descriptive essay has some narrative elements as well as color, vividness, and realistic portrayals.

• Biographical essay sketches life or presents character analysis.

• Nature essay attempts to picture the world of God’s creation and may do so in a graphic, pictorial vein or a more thoughtful, philosophical manner.

• Critical Essay includes biographical criticism, literary criticism, and book reviews. It is a record of an analytical mind weighing the virtues and faults of a literary piece, for instance, which it fully understands.

• Periodical essays are generally published in periodicals, hence, they are also called journalistic.

• Didactic essays enforce a moral and, therefore, the tone is serious and didactic (instructive).

Fiction

• Is a literary production of man’s imagination finding shape in stories of people or events.

Types of Fiction

• Prose Allegory is a prose form in which the characters, ideas, and actions stand for something else or for a system of ideas with meaning implied. Concrete characters are personifications of abstract ideas.

Example of Prose Allegory

• > Fable is a short allegorical tale conveying a moral or principle of behavior. The characters are usually animals talking like human beings but keeping their animals traits. Often, the moral is appended in the form of a proverb in the form of a proverb.

> Myths are traditional tales common to the members of a tribe,race,or nation usually involving the supernatural and serving to explain natural phenomena or suggest a religious or moral truth.

> Legends are stories of some wonderful events popularly believed to have some historical basis and passed down through the ages.

Prose romances

• Prose romances are types of stories in which some supernatural or magical events , fantastic, and unrealistic, occur.

Example of Prose Romances > Fairy Tales, which make use of folklore motifs, commonplace expressions, and typical themes are those which develop from stock characters such as cruel king, cruel stephmother,naughty sister, substituted bride , magic, supernatural changes, and restorations.

> Fairy tales, once the strange element in the situation is accepted, fairy tales assume a reality of their own .Virtue is rewarded and fairy tales always end happily.

• Folk tales are part of folklore (traditions transmitted through memory and practice rather than by the printage page.)

• A folk tales easily pass from language and spread all over the world; hence they are sometimes called “ migratory tales.“.

Prose satires

• Are stories in which human vices and follies are held up to ridicule.

Example of Prose satires

> Fabliau (Plural: Fabliaux) is a short, amusing tale often bawdy or obscene, cynically and slyly satirical directed against women, the clergy, and marriage. The humor arises from the plot, an intrigue, or practical joke told in a rapid succession of events that form a single episode. Among standard characters are the jealous, stupid husband, the braggart, and the unfaithful wife. Boccaccio’s Decameron contains brilliant illustrations of this type.

Novels

• Are prose narratives on a large scale (book length) and can be divided into three types, fantasy,love,and adventure novels. They are further broken down into such varieties as:

• Epistolary detective religious• Picaresque science-fiction sociological• Gothic naturalistic romantic• Utopian psychological sentimental• Western stream-of- consciousness surrealistic

The novel is a dominant literary form at present, both in quality and quantity.

Short story

• Is a prose narrative of limited length which must have characterization,unity,cumulative interest, climax, and a resolution.

• In a less exclusive sense, short stories should include the earliest forms of short narratives-stories of gods and demons, anecdotes,fables,mythical tales, lives of saints (hagiography),parables, and folk tales.

Novelettes

• Are prose narratives that are intermediate between the short story and the novels.

• It is about 50 to 150 ordinary pages long, but no exact limits can be given as to length. It is more elaborate than a short story but can be read in a single sitting and can produce a single, concentrated effect. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952) is an excellent example of a novelette

Prose drama

• is a literary work written in dialogue and intended for presentation by actors. The essence of drama is the make –believe by which an actor impersonates a character of the play. Dramas of any period have their different sets of conventions and the playgoer must be conscious of them. The same divisions under poetic plays apply to prose drama:

Examples of Prose DramaComedyTragedyMelodramaFarceHistorySpecial Types:

Closet DramaTragicomedyProblem PlaysComedy of mannersComedia del l’ arte

Special types of prose drama

• Closet drama which , though written in dramatic form, is intended for private reading rather than stage performance

• Tragicomedy is a combination of the elements of tragedy and comedy

• Problem plays are neither comedies nor tragedies but deal with middle –class life problems.

• Comedy of manners is a type of play which satirizes the extreme of fashion and manners- the acquire follies of a highly sophisticated society.

• Comedia de l’ arte was a type of comedy developed in 16th –century Italy and its essential characteristics was that it was based on a ploy (scenario) outlined in advance, but the dialogue was improvised during performance. Characters who wore masks were stock types as the silly old man, the pedant, the lover,etc.

Non – fiction prose types:

Biography and Autobiography

Letters (Epistles), Diaries, Journals

Book review

Literary Criticism

Scientific and Current Publications