Other Prose Literature

Philosophy History

Legal
Journalism
Writings

Scientific
Writings
 Prose
Novels
stories
-earned the names “fiction” to
distinguish them from factual
writing or nonfiction, which
writers historically have crafted
in prose.
 The literary nature of
science writing has
become less pronounced
over the last two
centuries.
 Scientific works of Euclid,
Aristotle, Copernicus, and
Newton still possess value; but
since the science in them has
largely become outdated, they
no longer serve for scientific
instruction.
 Philosophy has become an
increasingly academic
discipline. Major philosophers
through history—Plato,
Aristotle, August, Descartes,
Nietzsche—have become as
canonical as any writers.
 Creative Literary
Nonfiction Journalism
-these areas are large and often
have a primarily utilitarian
purpose: to record data or
convey immediate information.
 Major literary historians
include Herodotus,
Thucydides and Procopius,
all of whom count as
canonical literary figures.
Law offers a less clear case.
Some writings of Plato and
Aristotle, or even the early
parts of the Bible, might
count as legal literature.
 Law tables of
Corpus Juris
Hammurabi of
Civilis
Babylon

The founding documents of many

countries, including the United
States Constitution, can count as
literature; however legal writing
now rarely exhibits literary merit.
Game Design scripts- In essence
never seen by the player of a game
and only by developers and/or
publishers, the audience for these
pieces is usually very small. Still,
many game scripts contain
immersive stories and detailed
worlds making them hidden literary
gems.
Most of these fields, then, through
specialization or proliferation, no longer
generally constitute “literature” in the
sense under discussion. They may
sometime count as “literary literature”;
more often they produce what one might
call “technical literature” or “professional
literature”
 Related Narrative Forms
Graphic Novels & Comic books
• present stories told in combination of sequential artwork, dialogue and text.

Films, videos, & broadcast soap operas

• have carved out a niche which often parallels the functionality of prose
fiction.

Interactive Fiction
• a term for prose-based genre of computer games, occupies a small literary
niche.

Electronic literature
• is a developing literary genre meant to be read on a computer screen, often
making use of hypertext.
Genres of Literature
A literary genre refers to the traditional divisions of
literature of various kinds according to a particular
criterion of writing.
 Literary Genre
-a genre of literature, that is “a loose set of
criteria for a category of literary composition”,
depending on literary technics, tone, or content.
General Genres in Literature

epic tragedy comedy

short
novel
story
-a genre like satire, allegory or
pastoral might appear in any
of the above, not only as a
subgenre but as a mixture of
genres
 Subgenres
Genres are often divided in to subgenres.

Literature Poetry Drama Comedy

• poetry • epic • comedy • burlesque
• drama • lyric • tragedy • satire
• prose • dramatic • farce
Important terms for
Poetry
Allego -are written in the form of fables,
parables, poems, stories, and almost any
ry other style or genre.
-to tell a story that has characters, a
setting, as well as other types of symbols,
that both literal and figurative meanings.
-example of allegory is Dante’s “The
Divine Comedy”
Difference between allegory & symbol
• a complete narrative
Allegory that conveys abstract
ideas to get a point
across
• a representation of an

Symbol idea or concept that can

have a different meaning
throughout the literary
work
Alliteratio -a pattern of sound that includes the
n repetition of consonant sounds
-the repetition can be located at the
beginning of successive words or inside
the words
-use to audibly represent the action that
is taking place
-example: Biting my truant pen, beating
myself for spite
 -a reference in a literary work to a person,
Allusio place, or thing in history or another work of
literature
n -often indirect or brief reference to well-known
characters or events

-serve an important function in writing in that

they allow the reader to understand a difficult
concept by relating to an already familiar story
-specific examples of allusions can be found
throughout Dante’s “Inferno”
 I doubt if Phaeton feared more—that time
he dropped the sun-reins of his father’s chariot
and burned the streak of sky we see today—

or if poor Icarus did—feeling his sides

unfeathering as the was began to melt, his father
shouting: “Wrong, your course is wrong”
(Canto XVII:106-111)
Connotati -an association that comes along with a particular
word
on -relate not to a word’s actual meaning, or
denotation, but rather to the ideas or qualities that
are implied by the word

-a good example is the word “gold”. The ideas

associated with gold are greed, luxury, or avarice.

“Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper

along the path, that bites the horse’s heel so that
its rider tumbles backward”
Denotatio The exact meaning of a word,
n without the feelings or
suggestions that the word may
imply
-it is the opposite of
connotation
-Example: heart: an organ that
circulates throughout the body.
 -a style of poetry defined as a
Couple complete thought written in two lines
t with rhyming ends.
-the most of the popular couplets is the
heroic couplet.

-The heroic couplet consists of two

rhyming lines of iambic pentameter
usually having a pause in the middle
of each line.
William Shakespeare “Shall I Compare
Thee to a Summer’s Day”

So long as men can breathe or eyes can

see,
So long as lives this, and this gives life to
thee.
Eleg -a type of literature defined as a song or poem,
written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow
or lamentation, usually for one who has died.
y -this type of work stemmed out of a Greek work
known as a “elegus”, a song of mourning or
lamentation that is accompanied by the flute.

-two famous elegies include Thomas Gray’s

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and
Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs last in the
Dooryard Bloom’d”
Epigra -a short poem or verse that seeks to ridicule a thought
or event, usually with witticism or sarcasm.
m
-these literary works were very popular during the
Renaissance in Europe in the late 14th century and the
Neoclassical period, which began after the Restoration
in 1660.
-Poems that are meditative or satiric all fall into this
category.

Example: Swan sings before they die—’twere no bad

thing
Should certain people die before they sing!
Figurati -a type of language that varies from the norms of
literal language, in which words mean exactly what
ve they say.
Languag -also known as “ornaments of language”, figurative
e language does not mean exactly what it says, but
instead forces the reader to make an imaginative leap
in order to comprehend an author’s point .
-it facilitates understanding because it relates
something familiar.

Some popular examples of figurative language

include simile and metaphor. “He ran like a hare
down the street.”
Gothic -a literary style popular during the end of the 18th century
and the beginning of the 19th.
-this style usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with
horror, despair, the grotesque and other dark subjects.
-Gothic literature was named for the apparent influence of
the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre.
Many of these gothic tales took place in such gothic surroundings,
sometimes a dark and stormy castle as shown in Mary Wollstoncraft
Shelly’s “Franskenstein” or Bram Stoker’s infamous “Dracula”
-this literature gave birth to many other forms, such as suspense,
ghost stories, horror, mystery, and also Poe’s detective stories.
Example: “Tell-tale Heart”
Hyperbo -an extravagant exaggeration

le -used for emphasis or vivid descriptions

-In drama, hyperbole is quiet common, especially in heroic

drama. It is a fundamental part of burlesque writing and the
“tall tale” from Western America.
-it is even part of our day-to-day speech: “You’ve
grown like a bean sprout” or “ I’m older than the
hills.”
-In poetry, hyperbole can emphasize or dramatize a
person’s opinion or emotions.
 -it is a song-like poem written mainly to express
Lyric the feelings of emotions or thought from a
particular person, thus separating it from
narrative poems.
-these are generally short, averaging roughly
twelve to thirty lines, and rarely go beyond sixty
lines.
-it expresses vivid imagination as well as
emotion and all flow fairly concisely; because of
this aspect, as well as their steady rhythm, they
were often used in song.
Italian Sonnet by James DeFord
"Turn back the heart you've turned away
Give back your kissing breath
Leave not my love as you have left
The broken hearts of yesterday
But wait, be still, don't lose this way
Affection now, for what you guess
May be something more, could be less
Accept my love, live for today."
Metaph -a type of figurative language in which a statement
is made that says that one thing is something else
or but, it is not.
-Metaphoric language is used in order to realize
new and different meaning. As an effect, a metaphor
functions primarily to increase stylistic colorfulness
and variety.
-In his Poetics, Aristotle claims that for one to
master the use of metaphor is….”a sign of genius,
since a good metaphor implies an intuitive
perception of the similarity in disimilars.”
Metony -a figure of speech which substitutes one term
with another that is being associated with that
my term.
-A name transfer takes place to demonstrate an
association of a whole part to a part or how two
things are associated in some way. This will
allow readers to recognize similarities or
common features among terms.
-For example, in the book of Gen. 3:19, it refers
to Adam by saying that “by the sweat of your
brow, you will eat your food.”
Narrativ -a poem that tells a story

e Poem -A narrative poem can come in many forms and

styles, both complex & simple, short or long, as
long as it tells a story.
-Example of this are epics, ballads, and metrical
romances.

-In Western literature, narrative poetry dates

back to the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh &
Homer’s epic the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Personificati -a figure of speech where animals, ideas or
on inorganic objects are given human
characteristics
-Personification is most often used in
poetry, coming to popularity during the 18th
century.
-Example of this is James Stephen’s poem
“The Wind” in which wind performs
several actions. “The wind stood up and
gave a shout. He whistled on his two
fingers.”
 -repetition of an identical or similarly accented sound or sounds in
Rhyme a work
-Historically, rhyme came into poetry late, showing in the Western
world around AD 200 in the Church Latin of North Africa.

-Its popularity grew in the Medieval Latin poetry.

-Lyricists may find multiple ways to rhyme within a verse. End

rhymes have words that rhyme at the end of a verse-line. Internal
rhymes have words that rhyme within it.

Algernon C. Swinburne, a rebel and English poet, used internal

rhymes in many of his Victorian poems such as “sister, my sister,
O fleet sweet swallow.”
Rhyme -the pattern of rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by
matching lowercase letters to show which lines rhymes.

Scheme -the rhyme scheme may follow a fixed pattern (as in a sonnet)
or may be arranged freely according to the poet’s requirements

-the use of a scheme, or pattern, came about before poems were

written down; when they were passed along in song or oral
poetry. Since many of these poems were long, telling of great
heroes, battles, and other important cultural events, the rhyme
scheme helped with memorization.
-A rhyme scheme also helps give a verse movement, providing
a break before changing thoughts.
Simile -is a type of a figurative language, language does not mean exactly what it
says, that makes a comparison between two otherwise unalike objects or ideas
by connecting them with the words “like” or “as”.

-the reader can see a similar connection with the verbs resemble, comparer and
liken.

-Similes allow an author to emphasize a certain characteristic of an object by

comparing that object to an unrelated object that is an example of that
characteristic.
-Example: “Robin Hood and Allin a Dale”

With that came in a wealthy knight,

Which was both grave and old,
And after him a finikin lass
Did shine like glistening gold
Short -a prose narrative that is brief in nature. The short
story also has many of the same characteristics of a
Story novel including characters, setting and plot.

-There are many authors well known for the short

story including Edgar Allan Poe, Sherwood
Anderson and Ernest Hemingway.
-General standard might be that the short story
could be read in ne sitting.
Slant -also known as near rhyme, half rhyme, off rhyme, imperfect
rhyme, oblique rhyme, or pararhyme.
Rhyme
-A distinctive system or pattern of metrical structure and verse
composition in which two words have only their final
consonant sounds and no preceding vowel or consonant
sounds in common.
-Instead of perfect or identical sounds that if both were
accented would be a perfect rhyme (stopped & wept; parable
& shell)
Alliteration, assonance, and consonance are accepted as slant
rhyme due to their usage of sound combinations (spilled &
spoiled; chitter & chatter)
Sonnet -it is a distinctive style that uses system or pattern of metrical
structure and verse composition usually consisting of fourteen
lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern.

-There are two main styles of sonnet, the Italian sonnet and
the English sonnet.

-The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, named after Petrarch (1304-

1374)a fourteenth century writer and best known poet to use
this form, was developed by the Italian poet Guitonne of
Arezzo (1230-1294) in the thirteenth century.
Sonnet Usually written in iambic pentameter, it consists forst of a
octave, or eight lines, which asks a question or states a problem
or proposition and follows the rhyme scheme a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a.
The sestet, or the last six lines, offers an answer, or a resolution
to the proposed problem, and follows the rhyme scheme c-d-e-
c-d-e.
-The English or Shakespearean sonnet was named after William
Shakespeare (1564-1616) who most believed to the best writer
to use the form.

-Adapting the Italian form to the English, the octave, and the
sestet, were replaced by three quatrains, each having its own
independent rhyme scheme typically rhyming every other line,
and ending with a rhyme couplet.
Sonnet Instead of the Italianic break between the octave and
the sestet, the break comes between the twelfth and
thirteenth lines.

-The ending couplet is often the main thought change

of the poem, and has an epigrammatic ending.

-It follows the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f,

g-g
 Shakespeare, Sonnet XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day a

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: b
Rough winds do shae the darling buds of May, a
And summer’s lease hath all to short a date: b
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, c
And often in his gold complexion dimm’d: d
And every fair from fair sometime declines, c
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d. d
By the eternal summer shall not fade e
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; f
Nor shall Death brag thou wandered in his shade, e
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: f
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, g
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g