PROSE AND ITS EVOLUTION IN LITERATURE

According to various studies, prose-depending on which study to believe in-

originated in the 14th century, some studies show as far back as the 9th century,
claiming the origins of English prose from Latin literature. Prosimetrum is a poetic
composition which exploits a combination of prose and poetry. All prose, let us
stipulate, is the sum of stylistic features determined by a familiar set of conceptual
operators: form, genre, author, period, literary fashion, and perhaps others as yet
unspecified. But prose as such is a purely conceptual entity; it functions as a kind of
raw material for composition, seemingly undetermined with regard to content and
yet constrained by conventions of grammar and usage. All prose, let us stipulate, is
the sum of stylistic features determined by a familiar set of conceptual operators:
form, genre, author, period, literary fashion, and perhaps others as yet unspecified.
But prose as such is a purely conceptual entity; it functions as a kind of raw material
for composition, seemingly undetermined with regard to content and yet constrained
by conventions of grammar and usage.

FICTIONAL PROSE
You can have historical fiction, in which the broad events (i.e., the Civil War) have a basis in fact, but
the characters and their individual actions are made up by the author. See Stephen Crane’s “The Red
Badge of Courage” as an example. Prose fiction is any creative, imaginary writing that is written in
sentences and paragraphs, as opposed to creative, imaginary writing in lines and scenes (Drama), or
creative, imaginary writing in lines and Stanzas (Poetry).

Heroic prose

Other examples of heroic prose are the 13th-century Icelandic sagas. The
“heroic sagas,” such as the Vǫlsunga saga (c. 1270) and the Thidriks
saga (c. 1250), are based on ancient Germanic oral tradition of the 4th to
6th century and contain many lines from lost heroic lays. Of higher
artistic quality are the “Icelander sagas,” such as Grettis saga (Grettir the
Strong) and Njáls saga (both c. 1300), dealing with native Icelandic
families, who live by the grim and complicated code of the blood feud.
Prose poetry (PROSIMETRUM)
 The term itself, which is clearly a coinage from prosa (oratio) and metrum, is
medieval. Prose poetry is:

Short—generally no longer than 4 pages, and sometimes only 1-3 brief

paragraphs.

Unconfined—prose poetry has no line breaks and is unaffected by the margins

of the page.

Sonic—a prose poem may rely on rhythm and internal rhyme, and often has a
certain musicality (or, even, cacophony).

Concise—every word matters and builds tension.

Experimental—the writer must rely completely on word choice, since prose

poetry eschews the bounds of form and tradition.
An example of prose poetry
Just to Say by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

In this poem by Williams, he utilizes poetic prose to create a hybrid work of literature.
The poem is structured in appearances like a poetic work with line breaks and stanzas.
However, the wording of the work flows as prose writing in its everyday language and
conversational tone. There is an absence of figurative language in the poem, and
instead, the expression is direct and straightforward.
NON-FICTIONAL PROSE

From the 19th century, writers in Romance and Slavic languages especially, and to a
far lesser extent British and American writers, developed the attitude that a literature
is most truly modern when it acquires a marked degree of self-awareness and
obstinately reflects on its purpose and technique. Such writers were not content with
imaginative creation alone: they also explained their work and defined their method in
prefaces, reflections, essays, self-portraits, and critical articles. Many readers are
engrossed by travel books, by descriptions of exotic animal life, by essays on the
psychology of other nations, by Rilke’s notebooks or by Samuel Pepys’s diary far
more than by poetry or by novels that fail to impose any suspension of disbelief.
There is much truth in Oscar Wilde’s remark that “the highest criticism is more
creative than creation and the primary aim of the critic is to see the object as in itself it
really is not.” A good deal of imagination has gone not only into criticism but also
into the writing of history, of essays, of travel books, and even of the biographies or
the confessions that purport to be true to life as it really happened, as it was really
experienced.