Prose

Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the form consists of verse (writing in lines) based on rhythmic meter or rhyme. The word "prose" first appears in English in the 14th century. It is derived from the Old French prose, which in turn originates in the Latin expression prosa oratio (literally, straightforward or direct speech). Works of philosophy, history, economics, etc., journalism, and most fiction (an exception is the verse novel), are examples of works written in prose. Developments in twentieth century literature, including free verse, concrete poetry, and prose poetry, have led to the idea of poetry and prose as two ends on a spectrum rather than firmly distinct from each other. The British poet T. S. Eliot noted, whereas "the distinction between verse and prose is clear, the distinction between poetry and prose is obscure."

History

History of literature by region or country

General topics

* Basic topics Literary terms Criticism Theory Types * Epic Novel Poetry Prose Romance Lists * Books Authors

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* Ancient Sumerian Babylonian Hebrew Pahlavi Persian Arabic Israeli

European

* Greek Latin Early Medieval Matter of Rome Matter of France Matter of Britain Medieval Renaissance Modern * Structuralism Poststructuralism Deconstruction Modernism Postmodernism Post-colonialism Hypertexts

North and South American

* American Canadian Mexican Jamaican Latin American * Argentine Brazilian Colombian Cuban Peruvian

Oceanian

* Australian New Zealand

Asian

East * Chinese Japanese Korean Mongolian South * Telugu Tamil Sanskrit Indian Pakistani Assamese Bengali Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Malayalam Marathi Nepali Rajasthani Sindhi Urdu Indian writing in English Southeast * Burmese Philippine Thai Vietnamese

African

North * Egyptian Ancient Egyptian Moroccan Sub-Saharan * Nigerian South African Swahili

Related topics

* History of science fiction List of years in literature Literature by country History of theatre History of ideas Intellectual history

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Latin was a major influence on the development of prose in many European countries. Especially important was the great Roman orator Cicero (106 – 43 B.C.E.). It was the lingua franca among literate Europeans until quite recent times, and the great works of Descartes (1596 – 1650), Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), and Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) were published in Latin. Among the last important books written primarily in Latin prose were the works of Swedenborg (d. 1772), Linnaeus (d. 1778), Euler (d. 1783), Gauss (d. 1855), and Isaac Newton (d. 1727).

Qualities

Prose usually lacks the more formal metrical structure of the verses found in traditional poetry. It comprises full grammatical sentences (other than in stream of consciousness narrative), and paragraphs, while poetry usually involves a metrical or rhyming scheme. Some works of prose make use of rhythm and verbal music. Verse is normally more systematic or formulaic, while prose is closer to both ordinary, and conversational speech.

In Molière's play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme the character Monsieur Jourdain asked for something to be written in neither verse nor prose, to which a philosophy master replies: "there is no other way to express oneself than with prose or verse," for the simple reason that "everything that is not prose is verse, and everything that is not verse is prose."

American novelist Truman Capote, in an interview, commented on prose style as follows:

<Blockquote<I believe a story can be wrecked by a faulty rhythm in a sentence— especially if it occurs toward the end—or a mistake in paragraphing, even punctuation. Henry James is the maestro of the semicolon. Hemingway is a first-rate paragrapher. From the point of view of ear, Virginia Woolf never wrote a bad sentence. I don't mean to imply that I successfully practice what I preach. I try, that's all.

Types

Many types of prose exist, which include those used in works of nonfiction, prose poem, alliterative prose and prose fiction.

• A prose poem – is a composition in prose that has some of the qualities of a poem.
• Haikai prose – combines haiku and prose.
• Prosimetrum – is a poetic composition which exploits a combination of prose and verse (metrum); in particular, it is a text composed in alternating segments of prose and verse. It is widely found in Western and Eastern literature.
• Purple prose – is prose that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself.

Divisions

Prose is divided into two main divisions:

• Fiction
• Non fiction

Further reading

• Patterson, William Morrison, Rhythm of Prose, Columbia University Press, 1917.
• Kuiper, Kathleen (2011). Prose: Literary Terms and Concepts. The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1615304943.  244 pages.
• Shklovsky, Viktor (1991). Theory of Prose. Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 0916583643.  216 pages.

External links

• Prose examples in Literature

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