prose

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Prose ( Latin prōsa oratio , straight out, simple speech ' ) describes the unbound language in contrast to the formulation in verse , rhyme or in consciously rhythmic language. A writer who only or predominantly writes prose is also known as a prose writer .

As prosaisch derived thereof is referred to a relatively dry, sober representation.

history

Originally, the term prose was used as a designation for scientific, written texts (for example in historiography, philosophy or in the natural sciences), as well as for notes in writing in contrast to poetry , which until the 18th century was mainly written in verse and for the oral presentation was intended. This difference determined the modern understanding of literature up to the 18th century, which included a valuation system that basically preferred verse and understood prose in this system as a lack of “formative power”.

Later, the prose term was generally used for every type of text, both for casual everyday speech and for the artfully designed fictional text. Since the 18th century, the term has also been used synonymously for narrative literature or epic , especially for the novel as the main medium of this literary genre . As a genre-theoretical term of this kind, prose denotes those different genre elements of literature that communicate what is observed, felt, conceived and thought and more or less interpret them: put into an expressed or unspoken context, explain, comment, analyze or evaluate and which (in contrast to verse drama and poetry ) are not verse-shaped in their form of representation.

Prosagenres are z. B. novels , novellas , short stories , short stories , essays , feature articles , memoirs , biographies , letters , factual texts of all kinds and the entire scientific literature .

Although the prose is not necessarily determined by fixed rules of text composition, it can be structurally condensed. For example, prose texts can be intensified in their creative openness in many ways through rhetorical figures or rhythmic clauses or also through a “logical eurythmy corresponding to the development of thoughts” ( W. v. Humboldt ) or a “spiritual syntax ” ( J. Grimm ). Likewise, the characteristics of prose can change with their respective quantity. Accordingly, length is a prerequisite for epic development, shortness for aphoristic conciseness.

The (literary) historical success of prose, especially since the 20th century, is at the same time linked to the “disintegration of binding worldviews in the process of modernity”, in which prose “becomes a form of representation for a world” “in which nothing can be found rhymes' ".

The usage prose shares its content with z. B. in speech , conversation , letter , article and factual text (e.g. legal texts or instructions for use ). A distinction is made between literary prose , which deliberately uses poetic design tools in terms of word choice, sentence structure , language melody , imagery and speech rhythm . Scientific prose (e.g. in philosophy) sometimes overlaps with literary prose.

In literary studies it is controversial whether the contrast between prose and poetry is suitable for establishing a system of genres that is equivalent to the concept of "natural forms" of poetry , epic and drama .

In contrast to the term prosaic , which refers to sobriety in the expression, “political prose” and “scientific prose” (similar to “proposal prose”) are characterized by the unusually flowery reference to current catchphrases in the daily political and / or scientific discussion.

Web links

Wiktionary: Prose  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • Prose . On: buecher-wiki.de . Retrieved March 24, 2014.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duden. German universal dictionary. 6th, revised and expanded edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Leipzig / Vienna / Zurich 2007, ISBN 3-411-05506-5 .
  2. ↑ prose (n.). In: Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved January 19, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Heike Gfrereis (Ed.): Prose . In: Heike Gfrereis (ed.): Basic concepts of literary studies. Metzler , Stuttgart and Weimar 1999, ISBN 978-3-476-10320-8 , p. 159 f., Here p. 159. See also Thomas Althaus: Prosa . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 275-278, here p. 275.
  4. ^ Thomas Althaus: Prose . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies. A hundred basic terms . Reclam, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 275-278, here p. 275.
  5. ↑ Heike Gfrereis (Ed.): Prose . In: Heike Gfrereis (ed.): Basic concepts of literary studies. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 978-3-476-10320-8 , p. 159 f., Here p. 159. See also Thomas Althaus: Prosa . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies. A hundred basic terms . Reclam, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 275-278, here pp. 276 f.
  6. ↑ See more detailed Thomas Althaus: Prosa . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 275-278.
  7. ↑ See also prose (see web links).
  8. ^ Thomas Althaus: Prose . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Reclam, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 275-278, here p. 275.
  9. ↑ See more detailed Thomas Althaus: Prosa . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Stuttgart: Reclam 2011. ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 275-278, here pp. 277 f.