Introduction to Prose

Definition of Prose

Prose is the written equivalent of the spoken language.  It is written in words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and chapters.  It utilizes punctuation, grammar and vocabulary to develop its message. 

According miriam webster

1. The ordinary language people use in speaking or writing b : a literary medium distinguished from poetry especially by its greater irregularity and variety of rhythm and its closer correspondence to the patterns of everyday speech
2. A dull or ordinary style, quality, or condition

Prose is a kind of writing distinguished from poetry because of variations in rhythm (rhythm), which has larger and more appropriate language with lexical meaning.

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure (as in traditional poetry). The English word "prose" is derived from the Latin prōsa, which literally translates as "straight-forward." While there are critical debates on the construction of prose, its simplicity and loosely defined structure has led to its adoption for the majority of spoken dialogue, factual discourse as well as topical and fictional writing. It is commonly used, for example, in literature, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, broadcasting, film, history, philosophy, law and many other forms of communication. Prose First Known Use: 14th century

History of english prose

Old english prose begin with alfred who was seeking to re-establish learning in england after the vikings.

- The anglo saxon period 5th-11th

The amount of surviving Old English prose is much greater than the amount of poetry. Of the surviving prose, sermons and Latin translations of religious works are the majority.  Old English prose first appears in the 9th century, and continues to be recorded through the 12th century as the last generation of scribes, trained as boys in the standardised West Saxon before the Conquest, died as old men.

Prose in medieval England 11th -16th

In the Medieval period can be thought of as a "transitional" period between the Anglo-Saxon and the Renaissance Period. Sometimes called the Middle Ages, the term is used to indicate its position between the classical and modern world. Unlike the previous period of the Anglo-Saxons, the Medieval period, however is completely different. They differ in their languages, cultures, attitudes, and more. Through the study of Medieval society and culture, one can understand the literature written during this prosperous and interesting period in English history.

The renaissance period early 16th –to late 17th

Prose was easily the principal medium in the Elizabethan period, and, despite the mid-century uncertainties over the language's weaknesses and strengths—whether coined and imported words should be admitted; whether the structural modeling of English prose on Latin writing was beneficial or, as Bacon would complain, a pursuit of “choiceness of phrase” at the expense of “soundness of argument”—the general attainment of prose writing was uniformly high, as is often manifested in contexts not conventionally imaginative or “literary,” such as tracts, pamphlets, and treatises. The obvious instance of such casual success is Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589; expanded 1598–1600), a massive collection of travelers' tales, of which some are highly accomplished narratives.

Romantic period early 19th

The French Revolution prompted a fierce debate about social and political principles, a debate conducted in impassioned and often eloquent polemical prose. Richard Price's Discourse on the Love of Our Country (1789) was answered by Edmund Burke's conservative Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Victorian era 19th

Carlyle may be said to have initiated Victorian literature with Sartor Resartus. He continued thereafter to have a powerful effect on its development. The French Revolution (1837), the book that made him famous, spoke very directly to this consciously postrevolutionary age. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841) combined the Romantic idea of the genius with a further statement of German transcendentalist philosophy, which Carlyle opposed to the influential doctrines of empiricism and utilitarianism. Carlyle's political writing, in Chartism (1839; dated 1840), Past and Present (1843), and the splenetic Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), inspired other writers to similar “prophetic” denunciations of laissez-faire economics and utilitarian ethics. The first importance of John Ruskin is as an art critic who, in Modern Painters (5 vol., 1843–60), brought Romantic theory to the study of painting and forged an appropriate prose for its expression. But in The Stones of Venice (3 vol., 1851–53), Ruskin took the political medievalism of Carlyle's Past and Present and gave it a poetic fullness and force.

Differences between old and modern prose

Old Prose longer have the forms as follows:

1) Tale, the old literary form that contains the life stories of the gods, fairies, prince or princess of the kingdom, and kings who have a life of extraordinary and magical.

2) History or tiambo, one long prose form that the contents of the story is taken from an historical event that never happened.

3) Tales. old literary form that tells of something extraordinary events and full khavalan, about the gods, fairies, beautiful daughters, and so forth. Functions must be fairy tales as an entertainer. Therefore, the fairy tale story also called solace.

Modern prose

Prose is just the glow of the new society. The works of prose produced by the new Indonesian society began to be flexible and universal, written and illustrated by lively and can be enjoyed by the wider public sphere. modern prose forms, including the following:

1. Roman contains the story of human life described as specific or detail. Based on its contents, romance novels can be divided into historical, social romance, romance the soul, romance tendencies.
2. Short Story, is a short essay in the form of narrative. Short piece tells the full human life dispute, touching or exciting, and contain an impression that is not easily forgotten.
3. The novel, which tells the imaginative essay on the intact side probematika human life or a few figures.
4. Autobiography, contains the story of the author's personal stories about himself, about his life experiences from childhood until her adulthood.
5. Biography, contains a story or a story about a person's life experiences from childhood to adulthood, or even to death, written by someone else.
6. Essay, essay in the form of criticism about a work of literature, art, or field