AN INTRODUCTION
The word prose is derived from the Latin expression “Prosa oratio” which means straightforward or direct speech.
The French poet Paul Valery compared prose with walking while verse with dancing.
Any kind of literary genre can be written in the form of prose thus it is not restricted to a particular genre.
For instance , it is considered that epics are mainly written in verse but the qualities of epics can also be found in Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" which is written in prose.
FORMS OF PROSE
In so far as the forms of prose are concerned, these are of two kinds viz.
• Fictional forms, under which falls the category of the short story and the novel.
• Non-fictional forms, under which falls the category of essay, biography, autobiography and travelogue.
Following are a brief explanation of non-fictional forms of prose.
i. Essay
The word is derived from French which means attempt. It has a moderate length and a particular topic. Essays are further classified into two categories viz.
• Formal essays, otherwise known as articles having the purpose of conveying ideas. An example being journals like Critical Quarterly.
• Personal essays, which seeks to entertain it’s reader and is written in a light style often conversational and reveals the personality of the author. An example being “The Essays of Elia” by Charles Lamb
ii. Biography
It tells the story of an individual. It covers the whole life of the individual, from birth to death and even discusses about his reputation after his death. It project the personality of the individual, helping the readers to relate with the subject. In a biography the author is not the same individual upon whom the biography is based.
iii. Autobiography
In an autobiography the author is his own biographer. It is selective in the incidents it describes and does not cover the entire life of oneself. Therefore , it is necessarily incomplete. Events in an autobiography are seen through the consciousness of the protagonist so it tends to be more subjective. An example being Neheru’s “Autobiography” (1936)
iv. Travelogue
It is an account of the writer’s travel and the focus is on the places and people he meets in his travel. An example of travelogue being “The Travels of Dean Mohamet” (1794) by Dean Mohamed.
VARIETIES OF PROSE
There are three main varieties of prose employed by writers in their writing and they are:-
• Descriptive
• Narrative
• Expository
These are not exclusive categories and a writer may employ one , two or all of them in a same passage.
i. Descriptive Prose
It describes an object or event in a vivid and realistic way so much so as to make the reader feel that through the senses of his experience. It ,sometimes, can be impressionistic i.e presenting things from a personal point of view or can be a kind of photographic realism giving the readers the impression of looking at a photograph or videotape of the place.
ii. Narrative Prose
It describes the narrative of an event that happens over the course of time. The pace of the narrative can be fast or slow, exciting or factual, highly imaginative or purely objective. It can deal with the external happenings or the internal events and the changing feelings and emotions.
iii. Expository Prose
These proses defines or explains a subject. Scholarly writings on various subjects falls under the category of expository prose. It presents details in a concrete and clear manner with logical sequence. The aim of the writer is not to describe something but to present with facts and ideas with the use of various devices like the use of examples, shifting of time from rhetoric to personal, narrating interesting anecdotes in support of their ideas.
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