Overview of Stylistics
Unit
1
tended
Learninng
Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:
1.
Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are
expected to:
1. Define stylistics, style, meaning, contexts, expressiveness and emotiveness in
relation to nature and goals of the study, history and influences.
2. Discuss and differentiate styles, meanings, contexts and devices and means in
language and literature.
3. Share one’s interest in stylistic research and study through appreciation of
author’s unique styles and literatures as an art form.
1.7 Review of Prose and Drama Genres
What is Prose?
Prose is verbal or written language that follows the natural flow of speech. It is
most common form of writing, used in both fiction and non-fiction. Prose comes from
the Latin “prose oration,” meaning, “straightforward.”
4 Common Types of Prose
Prose can vary depending according to style and purpose. There are four distinct types
of prose that writers use:
1. Nonfictional prose. Prose that is a true story or factual account of events or
information is nonfiction. Textbooks, newspaper articles, and instruction
manuals all fall into this category. Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, composed
entirely of journal excerpts, recounts the young teen’s experience of hiding with
her family in Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II.
2. Fictional prose. A literary work of fiction. This is the most popular type of literary
prose, used in novels and short stories, and generally has characters, plot,
setting and dialogue.
3. Heroic prose. A literary work that is either written down or preserved through
oral tradition but is meant to be recited. Heroic prose is usually a legend of fable.
The twentieth-century Irish tales revolving around the mythical warrior Finn
McCool are an example of heroic prose.
4. Prose poetry. Poetry written in prose form. This literary hybrid can sometimes
have rhythmic and rhyming patterns. French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote
prose poems, including “Be Drunk” which starts off: “And if sometimes, on the
steps of a palace or the green frass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your
room.”
Function of Prose
While there have been many critical debates over the correct and valid
construction of prose, the reason for its adoption can be attributed to its
loosely-defined structure, which most writers feel comfortable using when
expressing or conveying their ideas and thoughts. It is the standard style of
writing used for most spoken dialogues, fictional as well as topical and
factual writing, and discourses. It is also the common language used in
newspapers, magazines, literature, encyclopedias, broadcasting, philosophy,
law, history, the sciences, and many other forms of communication.
What Is the Difference Between Prose and Poetry?
Prose and poetry both have unique qualities that distinguish one from the
other.
Prose
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Follows natural patterns of speech and communication
Has a grammatical structure with sentences and paragraphs
Uses everyday language
Sentences and thoughts continue across lines
Poetry
• Traditional poetry has deliberate patterns, such as rhythm and rhyme
• Many poems have a formal metrical structure—repeating patterns of
beats
• Incorporates more figurative language
• Poems visually stand out on a page with narrow columns, varying line
lengths, and more white space on a page than prose
• Deliberate line breaks
All Time Best Prose Writers
Some of world’s most influential people in history have been writers. These
authors have captured some of history’s greatest moments, creating records
that have shaped social and political history and reflecting on an everchanging world
and the foibles of the human condition. A list all-time best
prose writers is always going to be subjective list of course, but here is our
current list of the world’s best prose writers:
William Shakespeare (1564 -1616)
Best known for: King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet
An English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer
in the English language. Shakespeare wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long
narrative poems and a few other verses. His plays have been translated into
every major living language and are performed more often than those of any
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other playwright. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories,
which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced of this type. He
then wrote mainly tragedies including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and
Macbeth until about 1608, when he wrote tragicomedies.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Best knows for: Crime and Punishment, Demons, The Idiot
A Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher.
Dostoyevsky’s works explore human psychology in the troubled times politically, socially
and spiritually in 19th-century Russia. His work involves philosophical and religious
themes. Dostoevsky wrote 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories and numerous
other works that have influenced future authors both in and outside of Russia. Many
literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in all worlds literature
genres. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first
works of existentialist literature.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer famous for his realist fiction.
He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical work.
Tolstoy also wrote short stories, several novellas as well as plays and numerous
philosophical essays. Tolstoy’s ideas on nonviolent resistance, which he wrote about in
The Kingdom of God is Within You, were to have profound impact on Mohandas
Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel.
Victor Hugo (1802- 1885)
Best known for: Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Odes et Ballades
One of the greatest French writes, Hugo was a port, novelist, and dramatist of
the Romantic movement. Many of his works have inspired music, both during his
lifetime and after his death, including the musicals Notre-Dame de Paris and Les
Misérables. He also campaigned for social causes such as the abolition of capital
punishment. Later in life Hugo became a passionate supported of republicanism, after
years of being committed royalist, and his work touches upon most of the significant
political and social issues and the artistic trends of his time.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Best known for: Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, Bleak House
An English writer and social critic, Dickens was famous in his own lifetime, giving
lectures and performing readings. By the 20th century critics and scholars had
recognized him as a literary genius for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique
characterizations, and social criticism, while others complained his work was
sentimental and lacked psychological depth. Despite his lack of formal education,
Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of
short stories, and non-fiction articles. His novels were mostly published in monthly or
weekly installments which kept readers in suspense and allowed him to modify his plot
and character development based on feedback.
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J.R.R. Tolkien OBE (1892-1973)
John Ronald Reuel Tolkein was an English writer, poet, philologist, and professor
at Oxford University. Tolkien’s extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including
The Silmarillion that were published after his death, together with The Hobbit and The
Lord of the Rings, form a connected body ot tales, poems, fictional histories, I nvented
languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda and Middle-earth
within it.
George Orwell (1903-1950)
Best known for: 1984, Animal Farm
Born Eric Arthur Blair, George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, journalist
and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to
totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism. His non-fiction works
include The Road to Wigan Pier about his life in the north of England, and Homage to
Catalonia about his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. It is thanks to Orwell that we
have the terms Big Brother, Room 101, memory hole, newspeak, doublethink, proles,
unperson, and though crime.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Best known for: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain was an American writer, humorist,
entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was to become known as the father of
American literature. His short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
was published in 1865 and brought international attention.
Edgar Allan Poe
Best known for: The Raven, The Tell-Heart, The Cask Amontillado
American writer, editor, and literary critic, Poe is best known for his poetry and
short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. Poe is generally
considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and helped the emerging science
fiction genre.
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Best known for: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma
An English novelist known best for her six major novels, which interpreted,
critiqued and commented on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.
Austen’s plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for economic
security and the pursuit of favorable social standing. Her works were published
anonymously and gave a critique of the novels written in the second half of the 18th
century, to become part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her use of
biting irony, along with her realism and social commentary, have earned her acclaim
among critics and scholars.
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What is Drama?
Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance.
It is one of the literary genres, which is an imitation of some action. Drama is also a type
of a play written for theater, television, radio and film.
In simple words, a drama is a composition in verse or prose presenting a story in
pantomime or dialogue. It contains conflict of characters, particularly the ones who
perform in front of audience on the stage. The person who writes drama for stage
directions is known as “dramatist” or “playwright.”
Types of Drama
Let us consider a few popular types of drama:
• Comedy – Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary works, and
provide a happy conclusion. The intention of dramatists in comedies is
to make their audience laugh. Hence, they use quaint circumstances,
unusual characters, and witty remarks.
• Tragedy – Tragic dramas use darker themes, such as disaster, pain,
and death. Protagonists often have a tragic flaw — a characteristic that
leads them to their downfall.
• Farce – Generally, a farce is a nonsensical genre of drama, which often
overacts or engages slapstick humor.
• Melodrama – Melodrama is an exaggerated drama, which is
sensational and appeals directly to the senses of the audience. Just like
the farce, the characters are of a single dimension and simple, or may
be stereotyped.
• Musical Drama – In musical dramas, dramatists not only tell their
stories through acting and dialogue, but through dance as well as
music. Often the story may be comedic, though it may also involve
serious subjects.
Function of Drama
Drama is one of the best literary forms through which dramatists can directly
speak to their readers, or the audience, and they can receive instant
feedback of audiences. A few dramatists use their characters as a vehicle to
convey their thoughts and values, such as poets do with personas, and
novelists do with narrators. Since drama uses spoken words and dialogues,
thus language of characters plays a vital role, as it may give clues to their
feelings, personalities, backgrounds, and change in feelings. In dramas the
characters live out a story without any comments of the author, providing
the audience a direct presentation of characters’ life experiences.
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Famous Playwrights
William Shakespeare
Years: 52 (1564-1616)
Nationality: English
Literary Style: Comedies, histories, tragedies, tragicomedies
Notable Works:
• The Two Gentleman of Verona (1589)
• Merchant of Venice (1596)
• Romeo and Juliet (1597)
• Julius Caesar (1599)
• Hamlet (1599)
• Othello (1603)
• King Lear (1605)
• Macbeth (1606)
• The Tempest (1610)
Significance: He is regarded as the undisputed English master of writing,
from stories, poetry, to plays. His career as a dramatist began at the age of
18 when he left his countryside wife of Anne Hathaway to pursue a career in
the theater business of London. This was an era of English Renaissance
brought about by Queen Elizabeth's golden reign. Shakespeare displayed
great ambition for the theater and was quickly able to climb as an actor,
writer, and owner of a company. Known as the Lord Chamberlains Men and
later The King's Men he began producing many popular plays throughout
London for the rest of his career. He wrote on various genres from romance,
history, comedy, to tragedy including 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long
narrative poems. Many of his famous plays were attended by the queen
herself. Some of his most famous plays include that of Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, and Macbeth which are some of the most frequent plays performed
to this day. His influence spanned beyond the theater and inspired many
famous works of poetry and literature. He is regarded as an icon of English
culture and without question the greatest playwright to have ever lived.
Henrik Ibsen
Years: 78 (1828-1906)
Nationality: Norwegian
Literary Style: Modernism, Realism, Naturalism
Notable Works:
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Brand (1867)
Peer Gynt (1867)
Emperor and Galilean (1873)
A Doll's House (1879)
Ghosts (1881)
An Enemy of the People (1882)
The Wild Duck (1884)
Hedda Gabler (1891)
The Master Builder (1893)
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•
When we Dead Awaken (1899)
Significance: He is often regarded as the greatest playwright of the modern
era, and the father of realism. His plays are the most frequently performed
only after that of William Shakespeare. His work demonstrates his humble
upbringing thru a merchant family and demonstrates contemporary and
realism themes. Many of his plays deal with financial struggles and represent
societal conditions which he relates to his homeland of Skien Norway. In his
later work he demonstrated more scandalous and complex works such as A
Doll's House and The Wild Duck which were some of the first successful
tragic- comedies. His plays and poetry went on to inspire many playwrights
to follow such as George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller, Oscar Wilde, James
Joyce, and Eugene O'Neil.
Anton Chekov
Years: 44 (1860-1904)
Nationality: Russian
University: First Moscow State Medical University
Literary Style: Modernism
Notable Works:
• Ivanov (1887)
• The Seagull (1895)
• Uncle Vanya (1899)
• Three Sisters (1901)
• The Lady with the Dog (1903)
• The Cherry Orchard (1904)
Significance: He was born into a devout Orthodox Christian family and
excelled in academic studies. However, his father was declared bankrupt and
Chekov pursued a career in medical studies to support his family. He still
however made meager pay as a physician and chose not to charge the poor
seeking treatment. While Chekov used his medical practice to get by
financially, his true passion was literature. By the 1880s he had begun
publishing short stories for various newspapers that begun attracting him
attention. By 1887 he was commissioned to right his first play, Ivanov which
was praised in Moscow. He followed these up with other successful plays
such as The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and the Cherry
Orchard. He did not take well to criticism however Chekov's plays
demonstrated the first modern format of realistic dialogue among character
actors. By the 1890s he became a celebrated Russian playwright and kept
close ties with other famous writers such as Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky. In
1903 he wrote one of his most famous short stories, The Lady with the Dog, which was
said to inspire Vladimir Nabokov's literary works. Chekov died at
the young age of 44 due to tuberculosis, however his plays and short stories
are regarded among the finest examples of modernist literature.
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Sophocles
Years: 90 (497 BC- 405 BC)
Nationality: Greek
Literary Style: Classical tragedy
Notable Works:
• Ajax (5th century BC)
• Antigone (441 BC)
• Women of Trachis (5th century BC)
• Oedipus Rex (429 BC)
• Electra (5th century BC)
• Philoctetes (409 BC)
• Oedipus at Colonus (406 BC)
Significance: He is considered one of the greatest of the classic Greek
Tragedians most notably for his masterpiece play of Oedipus Rex. This
famous play revolves around a mythological Greek king of Thebes, who is
driven mad when he discovers he has killed his father and married his
mother. This famous play demonstrates Sophocles' masterful dramatization
of mythological tales. He is credited with expanding the dialogue of actors on
stage. During his time playwrights competed with one another and
Sophocles was the undisputed champion of Athens, winning 24 of the 30
competitions he competed in. The only other playwrights close to his level
were that of Aeschylus and Euripides.
Arthur Miller
Years: 89 (1915-2005)
Nationality: American
University: University of Michigan
Literary Style: Realism, Symbolism, Expressionist
Notable Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1949)
Notable Works:
• All My Sons (1947)
• Death of a Salesman (1949)
• The Crucible (1953)
• A View from the Bridge (1955)
• The Misfits (1961)
Significance: He is regarded as one of the all-time greatest American
playwrights, having produced over 50 works of note. His greatest play Death
of a Salesman was considered his magnum opus which won him the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama in 1949. He lived a very engaging life, born of Jewish descent
in New York City, he quickly displayed a knack for writing and journalism.
After he completed his studies at the University of Michigan he returned to
New York City to begin producing numerous successful plays. One of the
most controversial of his plays was The Crucible, which concerned the Salem
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Witch Trials. As a Communist sympathizer, Miller wrote the play as a
historical allegory to the harsh purge brought on by McCarthyism. Arthur
Miller is also renowned for his contributions to Hollywood, writing several
screenplays most notably The Misfits in 1961, which starred his wife at the
time, the iconic Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn however was struggling with drugs
at the time and ended the marriage shortly after the film and died a year
later. Despite his controversial dealings with Communism, and his marriage
to Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller has gone on be one of the most recognizable
names in American theater. His works demonstrated realistic social and
political themes with elements of symbolism.
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Module (Eng Ed 325)
Activity No. 1.7
Name: ____________________________________________
Program/Year: ____________Date Submitted: ___________
Discussion Board
Among the authors cited in the lesson, select one and describe the
function of stylistics to his or her work or works.
Criteria:
1 – 8 sentences
Content
5 points
10 points
Total 15 points
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