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3. Appreciating Prose APPRECIATING PROSE III SEMESTER (2019 Admission) BA ENGLISH CORE COURSE UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT School of Distance Education, Calicut University (P.O), Malappuram, Kerala, India 673635 19008 School of distance Education UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION Study Material III SEMESTER B A ENGLISH Core Course ENG3 B03 2019 Admission APPRECIATING PROSE Prepared by: Module I: Smt. Smitha N, Assistant Professor of English (On Contract), School of Distance Education, Calicut University. Module II: Smt. Nabeela Musthafa Assistant Professor of English (On Contract) School of Distance Education Calicut University Scrutinized by: Dr. Muhammed Noufal K., Assistant Professor Department of English CKGM Govt. College, Perambra. Appreciating Prose 2 School of distance Education Contents General Introduction Introduction to Prose Francis Bacon – Of Studies Charles Lamb – Dream Children: A Reverie G K Chesterton – On Running after One’s Hat Albert Camus - Nobel Acceptance Speech Arundhati Roy – Come September Pico Iyer – In Paris of the Humble Comma Chinua Achebe – The Education of British Protected Child Marcel Junod - The First Atom Bomb UshaJesudasan – Justice Versus Mercy References - Appreciating Prose 3 School of distance Education Appreciating Prose 4 School of distance Education Introduction This Self Learning Material of Appreciating Prose has been designed and organized for students of third semester B A English Programme. The text Appreciating Prose is a collection of essays intends to familiarise the students with the different types of prose writing. The first module of this text gives the students awareness to the important features of the different prose forms and the evolution of prose writing. This historical insight will help you to better understand and analyse the given prose pieces of the second module. The selected prose pieces in the second module fulfil the objectives of giving a flavour of different prose forms like essays, memoirs, autobiography, public speech and others. The topics discussed in the prose pieces ranging from the very light and casual way of looking at everyday life experiences to the heart breaking traumas of the Bombing. Detailed summary of the texts are provided with exercises in this SLM. In addition, a model question paper is given at the end to familiarise the students with the question pattern of the university examination. We request you to read original essays before going through this SLM. Wish you a happy learning experience. Appreciating Prose 5 School of distance Education Introduction to Prose What is prose? Prose is the verbal or written language which follows ordinary linguistic patterns and sentence structure. It is the most common form of writing in literature. Prose is used in both fiction and nonfiction. It follows grammatical rules such as punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary. Prose comes from the Latin term ‘Prose Oratio’ meaning straight forward or direct speech. The word prose was first introduced in English in the 14th century. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, prose is the writing that is not poetry. It consists of both Fiction and Nonfiction writings. Functions of Prose Prose is used when the writer wants to tell a story in a straight forward manner To resemble everyday language Convey an idea, information or a story in simple language Writer fulfils a story’s benefits in prose Appreciating Prose 6 School of distance Education Writer creates a voice for himself/herself through prose Builds relationship with readers through conversations. Prose applies a natural flow of speech Most comfortable way to express or convey ideas, thoughts and feelings It is also common writing used in newspapers, Magazines and many other communication mediums. Prose varieties Descriptive Prose It refers to the type of prose writing used to describe specific events, people or setting within prose. Descriptive prose describes things as they are. Narrative Prose Narrative prose is a format of prose writing which tells a definite story. In other words narrative prose means ordinary speech that tells a story. Exposing Prose Exposing prose is the kind of writing through which things are explained as facts, data, ideas, concepts and the like. It is a prominent kind of writing in prose. Appreciating Prose 7 School of distance Education Different forms of fiction Novel The novel is an extended version of short story. The word ‘Novel’ is derived from the Italian word novella meaning ‘little new thing’ which was a short piece of fiction. Novel is the most popular form of fiction since the early eighteenth century. The Novel denotes a prose narrative of characters and their actions in what is visibly everyday life. It has various sub-genres like Picaresque novel, epistolary novel, historic novel, science fiction etc. Short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that focuses on evoking a single mood or an event. It is usually shorter than a novel and deals with few characters. Characters are disclosed through actions. The setting of a short story is often simplified (one time and place), and one or two main characters may be introduced without full backstories. In this concise, concentrated format, every word and story detail has to work hard. Short stories typically focus on a single plot instead of multiple subplots, like people might see in novels. Some stories follow a traditional narrative arc, with exposition (description) at the beginning, rising Appreciating Prose 8 School of distance Education action, a climax (peak moment of conflict or action), and a resolution at the end. However, contemporary short fiction is more likely to begin in the middle of the action (in medias res), drawing readers right into a dramatic scene.While short stories of the past often revolved around a central theme or moral lesson, today it is common to find stories with ambiguous endings. This type of unresolved story invites open-ended readings and suggests a more complex understanding of reality and human behavior. The short story genre is well suited to experimentation in prose writing style and form, but most of the short story authors still work to create a distinct mood using classic literary devices (point of view, imagery, foreshadowing, metaphor, diction/word choice, tone, and sentence structure). Tale Tale is a prose narrative that describes the details of a real or imaginary incident or story. It is an old form of literature. Tale is one thing that many of us have listened Appreciating Prose 9 School of distance Education to when we were growing up. Tale has a great oral tradition, and there have been stories passing from one generation to another. These tales have constantly been one of the most popular genres of literature and many of them were written hundred years ago and still relevant. A tale tells the story about a main character who is called the protagonist of the story. This is one of the characteristic of Tale and character need not necessarily be a human being. It can be an animal, bird, superficial being etc. These stories are mostly exaggerated. This is done intentionally by the author to engage the reader. Tales are funny as well. Biography Biography is a form of prose in which the subject deals with the life of an individual. It is an account of events happened in a person’s life. The word biography is derived from the Greek word ‘bios’ meaning ‘life’ and ‘graphei’ meaning ‘to write’. Biographies are written to share the hopes, moods and aspirations of that person. Information included in biographies are based on facts.The person’s life story is told with respect to other people and events of the time they lived. In biography the Appreciating Prose 10 School of distance Education writer tells the story in a way that the reader can relate to the person and believe in his actions. It tries to develop an interpersonal relationship with the person and the reader. Autobiography The term autobiography refers to a biography written by the person itself. In an autobiography the writer attempts to reveal selected events or experiences of his/her own life. The writing is necessarily subjective. It cannot be a complete account of the author since the future has still to be lived.When an autobiography is told in chronological order, the author usually writes about the circumstances of their birth, childhood experiences, and educational background. Anecdotes about these life stages and experiences are common. According to the American poet W H Longfellow, “Autobiography is a product of first-hand experience; biography, of second hand knowledge”. The word autobiography was first used by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical The Monthly Review and in its present sense it was used by Robert Southey in 1809. Appreciating Prose 11 School of distance Education Autobiographies are often about people who have achieved some level of fame. In this case, parts of the autobiography would explain the author's rise or journey to fame. The author's career is usually discussed including the personal details. Some autobiographies are written by young adults, while others are written later in life. For example, Helen Keller wrote her autobiography, The Story of My Life, when she was a student in college. She went on to live for over fifty years after her autobiography was published. Memoir A memoir is a collection of memories of an individual written in prose. In memoir, the writer describes events or people happened in their life. In an autobiography incidents are narrated in a chronological order whereas in memoir, the timeline is scattered. When considering the characteristics of a memoir, the style of the narrative must be the important one. Memoirs are mostly written from a first-person point of view. This means it comes from the personal perspective of the individual in the form of first- person narrative.
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