1. GENRES & TYPES OF NARRATION
PROSE FICTION
GENRES & TYPES OF NARRATION

2. What is Prose?

3. The Middle Class Gentleman (LeBourgeois Gentilhomme) by Molière
PHILOSOPHY MASTER I'll explain to you all these strange things to their very depths. MONSIEUR JOURDAIN Please do. But now, I must confide in you. I'm in love with a lady of great quality, and I wish that you would help me write something to her in a little note that I will let fall at her feet. PHILOSOPHY MASTER Very well. MONSIEUR JOURDAIN That will be gallant, yes? PHILOSOPHY MASTER Without doubt. Is it verse that you wish to write her? MONSIEUR JOURDAIN No, no. No verse.

4. The Middle Class Gentleman (LeBourgeois Gentilhomme) by Molière
PHILOSOPHY MASTER
Do you want only prose?
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN
No, I don't want either prose or verse.
PHILOSOPHY MASTER
It must be one or the other.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN
Why?
PHILOSOPHY MASTER
Because, sir, there is no other way to express oneself than with prose or verse.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN
There is nothing but prose or verse?
PHILOSOPHY MASTER
No, sir, everything that is not prose is verse, and everything that is not verse is prose.

5. The Middle Class Gentleman (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) by Molière
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN
And when one speaks, what is that then?
PHILOSOPHY MASTER
Prose.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN
What! When I say, "Nicole, bring me my slippers, and give me my nightcap," that's prose?
PHILOSOPHY MASTER
Yes, Sir.
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN
By my faith! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing anything about it, and I am much obliged to you for having taught me that.

6. What types of prose are there?

7. Types of prose Letters Journal or newspaper columns Dictionary entries
Internet Blogs
Memoirs
Academic essays
Fiction
And many more…

8. What is Prose Fiction? Prose is any text not written in verse.
Prose fiction is narrative* fiction not written in verse.
*A narrative informs readers of events, factual (i.e., historical accounts) or imaginary (fiction).

9. PROSE FICTION GENRES & TYPES OF NARRATION

10. Prototypes of prose fiction
Epics (long narrative poems, in verse. Ex.: Homer’s Odyssey).
Folktales (oral genre)
Romance (in the Middle Ages, verse narrative about heroic figures)
Medieval chronicles
Collections of prose tales (Ex.: The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio)
Pastoral romances (narrative fiction about imaginary rural life)

11. Main Prose Genres Short story (developed in the 19th century):
Short short story (one main event, brief period of time, short in length)
Long story (more events, more significant in length)
Novella(deals with a period in character’s life; half way to a novel in size).
Novel(developed in the 18th century). Longer in size; depicts successions of events in the life of a character/group of characters; displays character development in the course of time.