Forms and varieties of prose.

 Forms of English Prose: There are different literary forms of prose. We shall devote our attention to the main non-fictional forms : the essay, biography, autobiography and travelogue.

Essay: The word “Essay” is derived from the French word meaning “attempt”. “An essay is a prose composition of the moderate length devoted to some particular topic.” Again, essays can be divided into formal essays and nonformal essays. Formal essays are also referred to as articles. A formal essay discuss the topic concerned in an objective and impersonal manner. Its primary aim is to impart knowledge. On the other hand, a personal essay seeks to entertain the readers. The style of essay is often conversational, it can be anecdotal and generally reveals the personality of the author. In English literature, “The Essays of Charles Lamb” or “Elia”, are famous specimens of the personal essays.

 Biography: A biography is the story of the life of a person. A biography tries to protect the personality of the subject. It helps the readers to share the person concerned’s hopes, fears, likes, dislikes, facts and fancies. In case of an autobiography, the writer is himself/herself his/her biographer. In this way, it tends to be more subjective.

Events are seen, felt and understood through consciousness of the author himself/herself. It is another thing that with the passage of time, it may give much objectivity to the recollection. Again, in an autobiography and biography, there is a big difference, whereas an autobiography is more selective in the incidents it describes, a biography covers the whole life of the subject from the birth to death and even discuss his/her reputation after his/her death. An autobiography is no doubt incomplete, at the same time it is or in advantageous position of presenting events at first hand. The author/authress is in a position to write what he/she has experienced himself/herself.

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A Travelogue is a description of the author’s travels. It is a sort of autobiographical account wherein the focus is on the places and people he/she has met in his/her travels and not on incidents in the writer’s personal life or his/ her personality. There is a very strong tradition of writing travelogues in the English writing. Addison, who is known to be the father of the periodical essay, wrote a travelogue. There are a lot of travelogue written in English literature by Indians. The first Indian writer of English literature Dean Mahomet also wrote a travelogue, “The Travels of Dean Mahomet through Several Parts of India” (1974)

Varieties of Prose

Uptil now, we have discussed the forms of non-fiction prose. Now, we shall concentrate on varieties of prose written by authors. There are three varieties of prose namely descriptive, narrative and expository. There can be no hairline distinction. An author is independent to use one, two or all the three forms of prose in a single passage. Narrative prose describes incidents and events. It deals with what happens with the passage of time. In the narrative prose, the attention is absorbed in the action. So far as narration is concerned, it can be slow or fast. The narration may be colourful, exciting and heightened or factual and matter of fact. Narrative prose can be both highly imaginative and thoroughly objective. A narrative prose can deal with external happenings or interpersonal relationships. The author is at liberty to narrate the changing feelings.

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 Emotions and internal events: Non-fiction prose-forms like travelogues, autobiographies and biographies deal with the narratives based on facts, whereas short stories and novels are the product of author’s imagination, but no hard and fast line can be drawn between non-fiction and fiction prose. One can find a great deal of historical facts in good historical novels. At the same time autobiographies can be full of imagination and the facts may not be so important. Fiction based on factual events can be seen. Such novels are called a “faction” (fact + fiction) or nonfiction novel. In “Cold Blood” (1966) by Truman Capotes novel, the basis of treatment is that of crime and punishment in Kansas. It is based on the interviews by the accused. “The Executioner’s Song” (1979) by Norman Mailer the term ‘true life novel’ has been used as the novel chronicles the life and death of Gray Gilmore, a murder, who demanded his own execution in Utah. Whereas, short stories and novels, have a big narrative voices, the narrative prose also finds an important place in the non-fiction also.

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Expository Prose: The use of expository prose is done to explain or define a subject under consideration. Works of scholarship religion, philosophy, science, technology, economics, history, commerce, political science. Expository prose presents details logically, clearly, concretely and in sequence. It is the objective of the author to present facts and ideas and narrate a story to describe something. Dynamic authors use a number of devices to make their subject-matter effective, for that, they use examples to illustrate their point of view, vary their tone from one of public rhetoric to one of personal conversation present analogies in support of their view point, narrate lucid anecdotes and use figurative language, such as personification, metaphor and similes. A lot of non-fiction prose is explicatory. Nevertheless, it means that expository prose has no scope in fiction.

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 Interesting Prose: There is one thing very clear lhat prose should be read as interestingly as verse. In analysing prose, the fiction of author should be closely examined – whether it is range of vocabulary or the usage of words. The structure and syntax of sentences must be given due attention, whether they are short or long? Does the author make simple senses or does he give preference to complex ones using many clauses and qualifying parenthetical comments. The rhythm of sentences need be closely examined, how the sentences flow. The style of the author is revealed by the use of punctuation marks and the structure of paras. The meaning should be kept in mind while analysing the style of author. The literary meaning of a piece of expression depends on the manner it is said. Apparent meaning does not constitute the full meaning of the text under consideration.

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