English Literature (B)

What is literature?
Literature is the name given to any form of written work
Genres of Literature
CSEC focuses on three genres of literature, which are referred to as the three
profiles. These are:

● Poetry
● Prose
● Drama

For this lesson we will focus on prose.

What is prose?
Prose writing is referred to as textbook writing or anything that is not written in verse or stanzas. The basic
defining feature of prose is its lack of line breaks:

In verse, the line ends

when the writer wants it to, but in prose

you just write until you run out of room and then start a new line.

Prose can be fictional or nonfiction.

Types of Fictional Narratives
Parables- A parable is a very short narrative about human beings presented so as to stress the tacit analogy, or
parallel, with a general thesis or lesson that the narrator is trying to bring home to his audience.

Vignette - In literature, a vignette (pronounced vin-yet) is a short scene that captures a single moment or a defining
detail about a character, idea, or other element of the story. Vignettes are mostly descriptive; in fact, they often include little
or no plot detail.

Short stories - A short story is a brief work of prose fiction( usually 300 - 3000 words), and most of the terms for
analyzing the component elements, the types, and the various narrative techniques of the novel are applicable to the short
story as well.

Novella/Novelette- is a prose fiction of middle length. It’s too short to be considered a novel and too long to be a
short story.

Novels - as an extended narrative, the novel is distinguished from the short story and from the work of middle length
called the novelette; its magnitude permits a greater variety of characters, greater complication of plot (or plots), ampler
development of milieu, and more sustained exploration of character and motives than do the shorter, more concentrated
modes.
Elements of The Narrative
Exposition: Setting (where and when does the story take place)? What is the main conflict or problem?

Character: Who are the main characters and what are they like?

Rising Action: The struggle that the main character experiences leading up to the climax.

Climax: The peak of the conflict - right before the main problem in the story is solved.

Falling Action: The telling of how the major parts of the story are resolved and tied up.

Resolution:The reader sees how the main character or situation has changed.