PROSE

DEFINITION the form of written language that is not organized according to the formal patterns of *VERSE; (Baldick, 2001: 207)

GENRE & HISTORY

EPIC BEGIN WITH...

EPIC definition HEROIC POEM / NARRATIVE POEM celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes, in a grand ceremonious style (Baldick, 2001: 81) Criteria: it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject; told in a formal and elevated style; and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or (in the instance of John Milton's Paradise Lost) the human race

examples Iliad and the Odyssey (c.seventh century BC), Virgil’s (70–19 BC) Aeneid (c. 31–19 BC) Dante Alighieri’s (1265–1321) Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy, c. 1307–21) Edmund Spenser’s (c. 1552–99) Faerie Queene (1590; 1596) John Milton’s (1608–74) Paradise Lost (1667)

ROMANCE THEN.....

ROMANCE DEFINITION a fictional story in verse or prose that relates improbable adventures of idealized characters in some re mote or enchanted setting; or, more generally, a tendency in fiction opposite to that of *REALISM (Baldick, 2001: 221).

RomanceXEpic a focused plot and unified point of view (perspectival point of view) condenses the action and orients the plot toward a particular goal (toward a specific climax which no longer centers on national or cosmic Problems) the protagonist or main character is depicted in more detail and with greater care (The individualization of the protagonist,)

EXAMPLES Apuleius’ Golden Ass (second century AD) Anonymus’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

NOVEL VOILA....

NOVEL DEFINITION a great variety of writings that have in common only the attribute of being extended works of fiction written in prose (Abrams, 1999: 190).

CHARACTERISTICS “realism”: grounding the plot in a distinct historical and geographical reality “individualism”: protagonist of the novel, with individual and realistic character traits.

SUB-GENRE picaresque novel: the experiences of a vagrant rogue (from the Spanish “picaro”) in his conflict with the norms of society, for example Bildungsroman (novel of education): describes the development of a protagonist from childhood to maturity, for example George Eliot’s (1819–80) Mill on the Floss & Doris Lessing’s (1919–) cycle Children of Violence epistolary novel: uses letters as a means of first-person narration, as for example Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740–41) and Clarissa (1748–49) historical novel: whose actions take place within a realistic historical context for example Sir Walter Scott’s (1771–1832) Waverley satirical novel: highlights weaknesses of society through the exaggeration of social conventions such as Jonathan Swift’s (1667–1745) Gulliver’s Travels (1726) or Mark Twain’s (1835–1910) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) utopian novels or science fiction novels create alternative worlds as a means of criticizing real sociopolitical conditions, as in the classic Nineteen Eighty-four (1949) by George Orwell (1903–50). gothic novel, which includes such works as Bram Stoker’s (1847–1912) Dracula (1897) detective novel, one of the best known of which is Agatha Christie’s (1890–1976) Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

OTHERS short story, a concise form of prose fiction, highly selective plot and focuses on one central moment of action. novella or novelette:intermediary position between novel and short story, since its length and narratological elements cannot be strictly identified with either of the two genres

STRUCTURE NOW

MAIN ELEMENTS Plot: What happens? Characters: Who acts? Narrative perspective: Who sees what? Setting: Where and when do the events take place?

CHARACTERS FUNCTION Major character Vs Minor Character – Minor Character: Witnesses Foil characters confidant Protagonist Vs Antagonist Mono-dimensional/ static/ flat Vs Multi- dimensional/ dynamics/ round

Characterisation TECHNIQUES Explicit/direct Vs Implicit/indirect Characterisation Explicit/ direct Characterisation – Beholder comment – Authoritative narrator Implicit/ indirect characterisation – Action – Speech – External appearance – Environment – Contrast and corespondences – Reinforcement by Analogy: name, landscape, between characters

SPACE/ SETTING Fictional Space Vs Real Space Function – Creating atmosphere – Characterization – Define plot lines – Creating symbolic space

STRUCTURE OF PLOT exposition—complication—climax or turning point—resolution

PLOT Plot is the logical interaction of the various thematic elements of a text which lead to a change of the original situation as presented at the outset of the narrative (Klarer, 2002: 115) rendered and ordered events and actions toward achieving particular artistic and emotional effects (abrams, 1999: 224) Units that are selected and arranged from actions in real world (mythos) Causal and logical structure which connect events

Plot lines Single plot Multiple plots – Main plot-line – Subplot-lines

Tightly plotted vs Loosely plotted Close structure vs open-ended plots

POINT OF VIEW