Literature - Prose Fiction

Prose

Prose is a narrative that recounts people’s experience in religion, politics, agriculture, relationships, travels, beliefs, and social structure. Literary prose in the same vein portrays characters like us with peculiar interests, who face challenges in pursuit of their goals and who try and adopt different strategies to overcome their challenges. It also recreates characters or events that pose as threats or challenge existing situations or actions.

Characteristics of Prose

• Prose is written in complete sentences.
• It is rendered in paragraphs.
• It is segmented into chapters.
• It uses dialogue sparingly.
• It also uses figures of speech sparingly.
• It uses characters and characterisation to develop its plot.

Sub-genres of Prose – Fiction and Non-Fiction

1. Fictional Prose:

   • It is a literary genre generated from the writer’s imaginative skills.
   • The characters, setting, and plots are part of the author’s imaginative skill, yet they must be credible and identifiable as part of human experience.

   Sub-genres of Prose Fiction:

   • Novels:
     • The most voluminous among all the three sub-genres of prose fiction.
     • The novel genre most often recreates more than one round and major character, and more than one theme.
   • Novella:
     • Novella is smaller than the novel genre but bigger than the short story.
   • Short Story:
     • It is the smallest among the sub-genres of prose. It ranges between 1 to 50 pages.

2. Non-Fiction:

   • Non-fictional prose works are based on facts and actual happenings.
   • They depict real-life experiences and situations.

   Sub-genres of Non-Fictional Prose:

   • Biography:
     • The writer recounts the life and experience of another person or other people.
     • He also traces childhood to adulthood experiences of the person or people involved.
   • Autobiography:
     • The author recounts his life involvement in religion, marriage, society, education, etc., from childhood to adulthood.
   • A Personal Narrative:
     • This may be autobiographical.
     • The writer chronicles his personal experiences in life, work, relationships, love, his achievements, failures, or regrets.
   • Essays:
     • It is a short piece of writing on a particular subject or phenomenon.
     • Essays may be products of research, experiment, observations, or other personal encounters.
   • Memoir:
     • Memoir is like personal narratives that focus on a particular theme, event, and period.