D1, Section 2: Prose

• Types of Fiction include: short story, novel, and novella

  • Fiction - literature in the forms of prose that describes imaginary events and people; something that's invented or untrue
  • Prose - literature written without rhyme or meter; no set of structure; present in both fiction and non-fiction works
• Short Story: a work of prose that rarely includes chapters and usually doesn't exceed 40 pages

  • ex. The Story of an Hour
• Novel: a long work of prose, including chapters

  • follows the actions, emotions, and character development of a protagonist
  • often has subplots related to the main theme
  • ex. "Invisible Man"
  • Types of novel: Existentialist novel and Nihilism novel
  • Existentialist novel - philosophical thinking begins with the human subject
  • Nihilism Existentialism - life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value
• Novella: a mid size work of prose with some chapters

  • conveys that same deeper study of character development, but in a shorter span and usually w/o subplots
  • ex. "Daisy Miller"
• Types of message in novels: (note: Fiction works can have more than one message)

  1. Educational novel or Bildungsroman - psychological and moral growth of protagonist from youth to adulthood
  2. Picaresque or "Rogue" fiction - usually satirical detailing adventures of up and coming hero in a corrupt society
  3. Political Fiction - deals with political affairs, almost aways criticizing an existing society
  4. Utopian fiction - explores social and political structures; idea of an ideal world
• Types of Nonfiction include: autobiography, biography, essay, informational, history, and how-to article
• Autobiography, Biography, and Essay:

  1. Autobiography - an author's nonfiction story of his life; usually written in 1st person, omniscient or limited POV
  2. Biography - the nonfiction story of a person's life told from an outside perspective; can be written w/o or w/o the subject's consent, as long as truthful or factual
  3. Essay - a short work of prose written about a particular subject, issue, or idea; may attempt to convince or persuade
• How-to articles, Informational Works, Historical Works:

  1. How-to articles - provides information on fixing, arranging, etc.; usually in form of a manual; bold, bullets, and listings aid the process
  2. Informational works - nonfiction prose that provides information, does not persuade, and remains neutral (traveling guides)
  3. Historical works - nonfiction articles that provide information about events that occurred in the past; may be from specific perspective