prose [prohz] noun 1.the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse. 2.matter-of-fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse, etc.

poetry [poh-i-tree] noun 1.the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. 2. literary work in metrical form; verse.

drama [drah-muh, dram-uh] noun 1. a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character, especially one intended to be acted on the stage; a play. 2. the branch of literature having such compositions as its subject; dramatic art or representation.

fiction [fik-shuh n] noun 1.the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially in prose form. 2. works of this class, as novels or short stories: detective fiction.

nonfiction [non-fik-shuh n] noun 1.the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality, including biography, history, and the essay (opposed to fiction and distinguished from poetry and drama ). 2.works of this class: She had read all of his novels but none of his nonfiction.

Fiction v. NonfictionTexts are commonly classified as fiction or nonfiction. The distinction addresses whether a text discusses the world of the imagination (fiction) or the real world (nonfiction).Fiction: poems, stories, plays, novelsNonfiction: newspaper stories, editorials, personal accounts, journal articles, textbooks, legal documentsFiction is commonly divided into three areas according to the general appearance of the text: stories and novels: prose--that is, the usual paragraph structure--forming chapters poetry: lines of varying length, forming stanzas plays: spoken lines and stage directions, arranged in scenes and actsOther than for documentaries, movies are fiction because they present a "made up" story. Movie reviews, on the other hand, are nonfiction, because they discuss something realnamely movies.Note that newspaper articles are nonfictioneven when fabricated. The test isnotwhether the assertions are true. Nonfiction can make false assertions, and often does. The question is whether the assertionsclaimto describe reality, no matter how speculative the discussion may be. Claims of alien abduction are classified as nonfiction, while "what if" scenarios of history are, by their very nature, fiction.The distinction between fiction and nonfiction has been blurred in recent years. Novelists (writers of fiction) have based stories on real life events and characters (nonfiction), and historians (writers of nonfiction) have incorporated imagined dialogue (fiction) to suggest the thoughts of historical figures.

FictionNonfiction: The Argument And The MeaningNonfiction is fairly direct.The author of a work of nonfiction has specific information or ideas to convey. Authors of nonfiction generally come out and say what they have on their minds.Nonfiction (as notedelsewhere, as well as below) is characterized by a claim of truth. Nonfiction can include a wide range of subjective forms of discussion: assertions of personal preferences or belief, appeals more to trust, faith, or personal values than scientific evidence or logical proof, subjective analysis of otherwise objective data, conclusions asserted with varying degrees of certainty.Critical readers will recognize these subjective elements in seemingly objective presentations.We read nonfiction for knowledge, new ideas, or to understand someone's perspective on, or analysis of, the world. We analyze works of nonfiction to recognize how choices of content and language shape the reader's perceptions and encourage the reader's acceptance.Fiction: The Story And The MoralFiction is subjective and evocative.It is "made up," and indirect in its communication.A work of fiction may evoke: the thrill of imagining impossible or unavailable experiences intrigue with playing out "what if" or" if only" scenarios feelings and perceptions of another historical period, or simply observations on the human conditionWe thus read fiction not to gain new information so much as to experience the ideas and feelings a story inspires within us.Readers have different expectations from fiction and nonfiction. Proof is a major issue with nonfiction; emotional involvement is a major issue with fiction. We expect a story (fiction) to grab us, an essay (nonfiction) to convince us. We will suspend belief when reading a romance novel or science fiction, but demand reason and evidence from nonfiction.For passing time or sheer enjoyment, of course, simply reading the story can be satisfaction and reward enough. We do not have to analyze everything we read. The point is to be able to interpret when we want toor have to.Both fiction and nonfiction can be subjected to analysis and interpretation. These two forms of expression are, however, examined somewhat differently. One analyzes a nonfiction text to discover underlying themes and perspectives, as well as to realize how choices of content and language shape the reader's perception and encourage the reader's acceptance.Analyzing Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, for instance, we can recognize not only remarks on the dedication of a cemetery, but comparisons between images of the living and dead, between what has been done and what must be done.We analyze fictional works for recurring themes that reflect on the broader human experience. People do not really tell nursery rhymes so that children will know about a girl named Cinderella or about pigs who built houses. The stories have deeper, unstated meanings: virtue rewarded (Cinderella) or the folly of a lack of industry (The Three Little Pigs). We respond to both the story and an underlying message.On the surface, Melville'sMoby Dick, for instance, might be seen as an adventure story about a man hunting a whale. On closer analysis and interpretation, the novel might be seen as a depiction of man's battle to subdue nature or of a battle between good and evil. Since fiction is indirect, fiction can require a significant degree of analysis and interpretation if one is to get beyond simply following the story.Fiction is SubjectiveFiction is, by definition, subjective. A novel, story, drama, or poem is the expression of an author's imagination. The characters and situations are "made up." Readers expect fiction toreflectthe real world; they do not expect it toportraythe real world. And yet fiction can seem very real without being factual. Poems can capture feelings or images to perfection. Events depicted in movies such asSchindler's List,Amistad, orTitaniccan appear just as they might have in real life.Fiction can be true, however, only in the sense that the actions or behaviors "ring true" with what we know of the world. The sentiment may be real, but the characters and incidents are the fruits of the author's imagination. And author and directorsas in the movies referred to aboveoften use "dramatic license" to distort history for dramatic effect.Fiction is Evocative: Images and SymbolsFiction conveys meaning indirectly (other than, of course, through morals at the ends of fables). The specifics are not significant. We draw meaning from thetypesof actions. This principle lies behind the fact that television crime series follow essentially the same plot line, week after week. It does not matter whether a crime victim is a socialite, a prostitute, a drug dealer, or politician, whether the crime is murder, extortion, or robbery. The message that the police always catch the criminal remains the same.Fiction evokes ideas and feelings indirectly by triggering emotional responses and mental pictures. Fiction commonly communicates through images and symbols. Color is often symbolic, as with the red passion of the Scarlet Letter in the novel of that title. Sunlight often conveys truth or reason. In Willa Cather's short story "Death Comes to the Archbishop" the development of the Bishop's garden is a metaphor for the expansion of Catholicism in the New World. And then there is the politically incorrect use of white and black for good and bad, as in old Western movies.Readers must be open to associations and reflection, creative in their understanding and interpretation. They must recognize a richness offigurative languageand concomitant element of ambiguity. The more evocative a text, the more the reader must do the work of finding meaning within the text.Interpretation: A Personal UnderstandingThe meaning of fictional works is more personal than that of nonfiction texts. With nonfiction texts, we assume any two readers will come away with pretty much the same understanding of what the text states. While we may not agree with someone else's interpretation, we should be able to follow their analysis.With fiction, the meaning is dependent on the perceptions, imagination, and feelings of the reader. In both cases, however, we demand that an interpretation be based on evidence on the page. And in both cases, part of understanding is understanding one's own interests, values, and desires and how they affect what one looks for and how one thinks about what one finds.Analyzing and Interpreting Fiction: PerspectivesThe discussion of nonfiction texts focused on the analysis of choices ofcontent,language, andstructure. The same focus is useful for the analysis of fiction--with some adjustments. The discussion examines the general perspective on each of the three major genres: novels (stories), drama, and poetry the application of the notions of content, language, and structure for each genreFiction, we saw above, is mostly about telling stories and expressing feelings. The content of fiction may take the form of the events of a story, especially in novels and short stories, spoken remarks, especially in drama, or images and symbols, especially in poetry. All three elements appear to varying degrees in all forms of fiction.

FictionNonfiction: The Argument And The MeaningNonfiction is fairly direct.The author of a work of nonfiction has specific information or ideas to convey. Authors of nonfiction generally come out and say what they have on their minds.Nonfiction (as notedelsewhere, as well as below) is characterized by a claim of truth. Nonfiction can include a wide range of subjective forms of discussion: assertions of personal preferences or belief, appeals more to trust, faith, or personal values than scientific evidence or logical proof, subjective analysis of otherwise objective data, conclusions asserted with varying degrees of certainty.Critical readers will recognize these subjective elements in seemingly objective presentations.We read nonfiction for knowledge, new ideas, or to understand someone's perspective on, or analysis of, the world. We analyze works of nonfiction to recognize how choices of content and language shape the reader's perceptions and encourage the reader's acceptance.Fiction: The Story And The MoralFiction is subjective and evocative.It is "made up," and indirect in its communication.A work of fiction may evoke: the thrill of imagining impossible or unavailable experiences intrigue with playing out "what if" or" if only" scenarios feelings and perceptions of another historical period, or simply observations on the human conditionWe thus read fiction not to gain new information so much as to experience the ideas and feelings a story inspires within us.Readers have different expectations from fiction and nonfiction. Proof is a major issue with nonfiction; emotional involvement is a major issue with fiction. We expect a story (fiction) to grab us, an essay (nonfiction) to convince us. We will suspend belief when reading a romance novel or science fiction, but demand reason and evidence from nonfiction.For passing time or sheer enjoyment, of course, simply reading the story can be satisfaction and reward enough. We do not have to analyze everything we read. The point is to be able to interpret when we want toor have to.Both fiction and nonfiction can be subjected to analysis and interpretation. These two forms of expression are, however, examined somewhat differently. One analyzes a nonfiction text to discover underlying themes and perspectives, as well as to realize how choices of content and language shape the reader's perception and encourage the reader's acceptance.Analyzing Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, for instance, we can recognize not only remarks on the dedication of a cemetery, but comparisons between images of the living and dead, between what has been done and what must be done.We analyze fictional works for recurring themes that reflect on the broader human experience. People do not really tell nursery rhymes so that children will know about a girl named Cinderella or about pigs who built houses. The stories have deeper, unstated meanings: virtue rewarded (Cinderella) or the folly of a lack of industry (The Three Little Pigs). We respond to both the story and an underlying message.On the surface, Melville'sMoby Dick, for instance, might be seen as an adventure story about a man hunting a whale. On closer analysis and interpretation, the novel might be seen as a depiction of man's battle to subdue nature or of a battle between good and evil. Since fiction is indirect, fiction can require a significant degree of analysis and interpretation if one is to get beyond simply following the story.Fiction is SubjectiveFiction is, by definition, subjective. A novel, story, drama, or poem is the expression of an author's imagination. The characters and situations are "made up." Readers expect fiction toreflectthe real world; they do not expect it toportraythe real world. And yet fiction can seem very real without being factual. Poems can capture feelings or images to perfection. Events depicted in movies such asSchindler's List,Amistad, orTitaniccan appear just as they might have in real life.Fiction can be true, however, only in the sense that the actions or behaviors "ring true" with what we know of the world. The sentiment may be real, but the characters and incidents are the fruits of the author's imagination. And author and directorsas in the movies referred to aboveoften use "dramatic license" to distort history for dramatic effect.Fiction is Evocative: Images and SymbolsFiction conveys meaning indirectly (other than, of course, through morals at the ends of fables). The specifics are not significant. We draw meaning from thetypesof actions. This principle lies behind the fact that television crime series follow essentially the same plot line, week after week. It does not matter whether a crime victim is a socialite, a prostitute, a drug dealer, or politician, whether the crime is murder, extortion, or robbery. The message that the police always catch the criminal remains the same.Fiction evokes ideas and feelings indirectly by triggering emotional responses and mental pictures. Fiction commonly communicates through images and symbols. Color is often symbolic, as with the red passion of the Scarlet Letter in the novel of that title. Sunlight often conveys truth or reason. In Willa Cather's short story "Death Comes to the Archbishop" the development of the Bishop's garden is a metaphor for the expansion of Catholicism in the New World. And then there is the politically incorrect use of white and black for good and bad, as in old Western movies.Readers must be open to associations and reflection, creative in their understanding and interpretation. They must recognize a richness offigurative languageand concomitant element of ambiguity. The more evocative a text, the more the reader must do the work of finding meaning within the text.Interpretation: A Personal UnderstandingThe meaning of fictional works is more personal than that of nonfiction texts. With nonfiction texts, we assume any two readers will come away with pretty much the same understanding of what the text states. While we may not agree with someone else's interpretation, we should be able to follow their analysis.With fiction, the meaning is dependent on the perceptions, imagination, and feelings of the reader. In both cases, however, we demand that an interpretation be based on evidence on the page. And in both cases, part of understanding is understanding one's own interests, values, and desires and how they affect what one looks for and how one thinks about what one finds.Analyzing and Interpreting Fiction: PerspectivesThe discussion of nonfiction texts focused on the analysis of choices ofcontent,language, andstructure. The same focus is useful for the analysis of fiction--with some adjustments. The discussion examines the general perspective on each of the three major genres: novels (stories), drama, and poetry the application of the notions of content, language, and structure for each genreFiction, we saw above, is mostly about telling stories and expressing feelings. The content of fiction may take the form of the events of a story, especially in novels and short stories, spoken remarks, especially in drama, or images and symbols, especially in poetry. All three elements appear to varying degrees in all forms of fiction.

DramaPerspectiveDrama is literature written for performance--or at least written in a style that would allow for stage performance. As a text form, drama can be thought of as story told though spoken remarks and stage directions.Of all fictional forms, drama comes closest to virtual transcription of speech. It relies on simulating the language of everyday speech as well as the encounters and interaction of speech: lying, confronting, prevaricating, concealing, admitting, proclaiming, and a wealth of other social/linguistic interactions.And of all the literary forms, drama is the one in which the author/dramatist almost never speaks directly to the audience/reader. (The use of an onstage narratoras with the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder'sOur Town is relatively rare.) Similarly, few dramatists create characters as vehicles for their thoughts or values, as in some works of George Bernard Shaw. For the most part, dramatists convey ideas through their characters and the plot, rather than in a direct embodiment of themselves in the way novelists do with narrators and poets do with personas.If discussion of novels focuses on content, and discussion of poetry on language, discussion of drama perhaps focuses most on structure--not only the structure of the unfolding story, but also on the interrelationships of characters. Drama is about the "dramatic," about conflict and resolution, about compelling actions and reactions, conflicts and discovery.Reading Drama: ContentWe can use the same criteria of content with drama as we used with novels and stories: character, action, and setting. With dramatic performance, however, we must add several additional elements. Putting on a play involves not only actors, but also a set designer, a costume designer, and a director. The director controls the action. The set and costume designer contribute to creating a visual representation of the setting.Reading Drama: LanguageSince drama consists of the spoken word, language plays a role in drama insofar as the language of the characters offers clues to their backgrounds, feelings, and personalities, and to changes in feeling throughout the play..Reading Drama: StructureAs with stories, we can examine drama with two understandings of structure. On the one hand, we have the linear unfolding of the plot from scene to scene, act to act. Drama often includes contrasting subplots that reinforce or set the main plot in additional perspective . On the other hand, we have the structure of the conflict itself, and can identify elements running throughout the text in patterns of behavior and events.

Novels / StoriesPerspectiveA novel is an extended story written in prose. Or, to put it more simply, novels tell stories.The novel is a relatively modern form of literature. The modern novel has existed for only the past three hundred years. Earlier narrativessuch as Homer'sIliador Chaucer'sCanterbury Taleswere written in verse.Novels and stories portray the trials and tribulations of life and the crises of human existence. The characters and settings reflect real life, although a sub-set of novels features more unrealistic (and often melodramatic) plots in imagined historical or future times (as with J. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Hobbit, Jules Verne'sTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, or modern science fiction).While written in prose, stories often exhibit poetic use of language and dialogue commonly associated with drama. (SeePoetryandDrama.)The Author and the NarratorThe author of a story often plays an active role within a story. The author, in the voice of the narrator, can openly comment on characters and their actions and predicaments. This "point of view" has been compared to the angle from which a camera might observe actions. The two major options for the point of view of a story are named after the pronouns authors might use: first person narrator who participates in the story I did this. third person narrator who stands outside the story itself He/she did/thought thisThe two different forms of narrator enable two different effects. A first person narrator might be an observer who sees all events, a minor character (as with Ishmael inMoby Dick), or even a major participant (as with the main character in Salinger'sThe Catcher in the Rye). When a character in the story, the narrator is limited in his or her understanding. Such narrators cannot be privy to other characters' thoughts or to actions at which they are not present.First-Person NarratorI said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Bay and she was all right only she was full of water.Ernest Hemingway,After the StormCall me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.Herman Melville,Moby Dick"Good-bye, my son. Bless you!" Mr. Turveydrop said this in quite a pious manner, and it seemed to do his son good, who, in parting from him, was so pleased with them, so dutiful to him, and so proud of him that I almost felt as if it were an unkindness to the younger man not to be able to believe implicitly in the elder.Charles Dickens,Bleak HouseA third person narrator can be all-knowing and might describe the action from one or many character's viewpoints. Such a narrator can guiding the reader's understanding by commenting on and evaluating actions as they occur (as in the novels of Dickens or Austen) or simply describe the action without much commentary.Third-Person Narrator(In the opening line the narrator, describing the story in the third person, nevertheless speaks to the reader in the first person.)We have as yet hardly spoken of the infant; that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion. How strange it seemed to the sad woman, as she watched the growth, and the beauty that became every day more brilliant, and the intelligence that threw its quivering sunshine over the tiny features of this child! Her Pearl!--For so had Hester called her; not as a name expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of the calm, white, unimpassioned luster that would be indicated by the comparison. But she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price,--purchased with all she had,--her mother's only treasure! How strange, indeed! Man had marked this woman's sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself.Nathaniel Hawthorne,The Scarlet LetterReading Stories: ContentOur first concern when reading a story or novel is following theplotor story linea term encompassing both thecharactersand their actions. These two elementscharacter and actioncontribute the major content of the story.The plot must have a context; it must take place somewhere and at some time. We can thus add a third element of content, thesetting(see below). Analysis of stories looks at the interrelationship between patterns of these three aspects of the story: character, action, and setting.CharacterCharacters (i.e., personalities in a story) have unique characters (i.e., human qualities). We judge character by how characters are described and how their actions are depicted. That is, we look at both what is said about characters by a narrator or other characters and at the actions and behaviors attributed to them. Characters often represent common character types: e.g., the bureaucrat, the bully, and the siren.ActionStories recount the loves, struggles, and confrontations of the characters. Stories involve conflict and its resolution. Conflict can arise from tension between individuals, between an individual and legal religious, political, or other institutions, or with one's own conscience. Conflict can thus involve an internal or external battle. Conflict with others can involve differing values, competing goals, the possession of a certain object (such as an inheritance or the crown in Hamlet), or the conflict can take symbolic form (as in Captain Ahab's struggle against nature represented by the whale Moby Dick).In the actions of characters we see values, goals, and alliances. From each action we infer behaviors, character traits and valueswhat the action is an example of. Such an understanding constitutes "explaining" the action.SettingThe setting includes all of the forces and institutions acting on the characters. Setting includes the geographical location, social climate, the historical period, and the cultural moresany and all factors that influence the characters and against which the characters act and against which their actions are measured.An understanding and/or appreciation for the Puritan beliefs of sin, for instance, is essential for understanding and /or appreciating Hawthorne'sThe Scarlet Letter. In some instances, locations can represent forces: fields can suggest openness and opportunity, rooms can suggest seclusion or isolation,Imagine the action taking place elsewhere, at another time, in another culture to realize the effect of a particular setting.Reading Stories: LanguageOf the three elements examined here (content, language, and structure), language is the least important, although hardly insignificant, element of a story. Language plays a role predominantly in terms of the use of symbolism and projecting an overall tone. We might think of this as part of the mental setting in which the action takes place. AnalyzingThe Scarlet Letter, we might note how language is used to indicate the lightness of the scene of Hester and her daughter Pearl in contrast to the darkness of the scene in which Hester confronts Reverend Dimmesdale. Language also can play a major role in terms of accents or dialects, as in Twain'sHuckleberry Finn.Reading Stories: StructureDescription of the structure of a story can be understood in two ways.In the first case, we have the linear progression from chapter to chapter. Within this structure, there is the building of suspense, the unfolding of conflict and its resolution. It is here that we discuss the plot, the rising action, climax, and resolution.Alternatively, we can look at the patterns of actions and interrelationship of characters occurring throughout the story.Note that stories, unlike non-fiction, are generally read and or appreciated only in their entirety. We can read a portion of a nonfiction work for specific information; to understand a story we must follow the complete unfolding and resolution of the plot. The same is generally true for drama as well.