Prose And Its Features

CONTENT
• DEFINITION OF PROSE
• KINDS OF PROSE FICTION
• KINDS OF NON-FICTION PROSE

PROSE
‘Prose’ refers to the literary or written form of the language of ordinary speech. Some plays are written in prose (e.g.) Sheridan’s The Rivals, Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, the plays of Ene Henshaw, etc. Fictional writings largely come under the aegis prose, although fictional works could be written in poetic prose. In a modern sense, fiction refers to a work in which an invented tale/story is presented in the form of a narrative in prose. In other words when we say ‘narrative in prose’, we do not include plays and poems. The reason is that the story conveyed in a play is enacted while the story in a narrative poem is narrated in verse rather than in prose. Prose may be classified as fiction and/or non-fiction.

KINDS OF PROSE FICTION
Fable: It is a story with a surface denotation which bears a deeper meaning (connotation). It aims to explain a problem in a very simple manner by pointing out a moral truth in an offensive way. Some of the characters in fables are animals which are made to talk and converse as if they were human beings (e.g.) George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

Allegory: An allegory and a fable share more in common except that whereas the fable almost always presents animals as characters, the allegory has characters which depict ideas such as Hope, Love, Pride, Despair, etc. (e.g.) John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

Parable: This shares something in common with the fable in that it is a simple, brief story used to demonstrate a moral truth or lesson; Examples are the biblical parables of ‘The Sower’, ‘The Prodigal Son’, ‘The Good Samaritan’ etc.

Romance: This term is not derived from the word, ‘romance’ (amorousness) as commonly used among today’s youths. In literature, romance refers to a fantastic story whose settings, incidents and even characters are removed from real life possibilities or achievements. Romances are meant to delight, shock or chill the blood of the reader (e.g.) Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto. These days, the modern romance is no more than a fantastic love story.

Novel: It is a long fictive or non-fictive prose narrative in which imaginary characters and events are presented to us as if they happened, as if they were realistic or true-to-life. It is usually long, from thirty thousand words and above.

The Short Story: It is a miniature novel. Unlike the novel, it does not have too many characters; often times it concentrates on a single event.

Novella: The novella falls between the novel and the short story. It is a prose fiction of middle length.

EVALUATION
1 Discuss ‘prose’ as a genre of literature.
2 Highlight any three kinds of prose fiction.

KINDS OF NON-FICTION PROSE
Biography: This is the account of the life of someone written by another person. The biographer obtains his/her facts through research, interviews, visits, and by perusing through lots of documents and files (e.g.) Chinua Achebe: A Biography by Ezenwa-Ohaeta.

Autobiography: This is the account of the life of someone written by him/her. Modern autobiographies tend to adopt narrative styles used in writing novels which is why these days, some critics insist that they be classified as fiction (e.g.) Camera Laye’s The African Child, Wole Soyinka’s Ake: Years of Childhood, Chike Momah’s The Shining Ones, etc.

The Essay: Generally, the essay is a fairly short composition in prose which enables the writer to express his/her thoughts on a single subject or topic. However, some essays are in verse rather than in prose e.g. Alexandra Pope’s ‘An Essay on Criticism’ and ‘An Essay on Man’.

Travel and Adventure: Books of travel and adventure are narratives in prose centred on the experiences of the traveller/adventurer spiced with descriptions of people, scenes and settings (e.g.) Travels in the Congo by Andrie Gide.

Criticism: This shares everything with the essay except that criticism tends to evaluate or pass judgement on works of literature and art (e.g.) Stylistic Criticism and the African Novel by Emmanuel Ngara.

GENERAL EVALUATION/REVISION QUESTIONS
1 Would you say that autobiography is a non-fiction prose? Discuss.
2 Explain extensively ‘The Essay’ as a kind of prose.

WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT
1 The principal aim of drama is to (a) educate and entertain us (b) educate us (c) entertain us (d) strengthen and beautify us.
2 Poetry is focused on one of the following
(a) emotion and ideas (b) beauty only (c) emotion only (d) ideas only.
3 Drama differs from poetry because it (a) involves many characters (b) deals with tragic experiences (c) uses elevated language (d) exists mainly in action.
4 A novel is a (a) prose writing about great people (b) prose writing about various people
(c) a long narrative fiction (d) a long story involving human characters.
5 The expression, ‘All the world is a stage’ is an illustration of the figure of speech referred to as (a) simile (b) paradox (c) metaphor (d) parody.

THEORY
1 Discuss any three kinds of non-fiction prose.
2 Explain any other two kinds of non-fiction prose not mentioned here.

READING ASSIGNMENT
Exam Focus: Lit-In-Eng by J.O.J. Nwachukwu Agbada et al; pgs 3-4.