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Language of Literary Texts Module No. 1

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 1

LITERARY PROSE AND DRAMA STYLISTICS

MODULE OVERVIEW

Prose and Drama are literary genres covering other specific literary genres. Most of the time, they are
considered as fiction and uses language specific for their description and definition. Prose may even cover
drama as the latter is still classified as such in some aspects. They even share almost the same elements and
characteristics. Their language follows a natural flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure, rather
than rhythmic structure, such as in the case of traditional poetry. Both prose and drama are narratives which
are based not on fact, but on something imagined or invented by the writer or author.
This module covers a brief review of prose, drama, and literary theories. It will also contain the different
elements and characteristics of prose and drama, which includes foregrounding as an important factor in
literary stylistics. A final output is expected which is an analysis of a prose.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Review prose genres, literary theories, and devices in the light of stylistic study.

 Mastery of the different elements of prose and drama.

 Understand the importance of foregrounding in stylistic analysis of prose texts.

 Create stylistic analysis of prose texts.

LEARNING CONTENTS (Prose and Drama Genres and Review of Critical Literary Theories)

PROSE
 The word prose first appeared in English in the 14th century and it is derived from the Old
French word prose, which in turn originates in the Latin expression prosa oratio which means
literally, straightforward or direct speech (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose).
 Prose, in its simplicity and loosely defined structure, is broadly adaptable to spoken dialogue,
factual discourse, and to topical and fictional writing. 
 In writing, prose refers to any written work that follows a basic grammatical structure (words and
phrases arranged into sentences and paragraphs). Prose simply means language that follows the
natural patterns found in everyday speech. (https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-prose-learn-about-the-
differences-between-prose-and-poetry)
 Many types of prose exist, which include nonfictional prose, heroic prose, prose poem, polyphonic
prose, alliterative prose, prose fiction, and village prose in Russian literature. A prose poem is a
composition in prose that has some of the qualities of a poem.
 Many forms of creative or literary writing use prose, including novels, drama, and short stories.

Some Common Types of Prose

 Nonfictional Prose. A literary work that is mainly based on fact, though it may contain fictional
elements in certain cases. Examples include biographies and essays.
 Fictional Prose. A literary work that is wholly or partly imagined or theoretical. Examples are novels.
 Heroic Prose. A literary work that may be written down or recited, and which employs many of the
formulaic expressions found in oral tradition. Examples are legends and tales.
 Prose Poetry. A literary work that exhibits poetic quality – using emotional effects and heightened
imagery – but which are written in prose instead of verse.

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Examples of Prose in Literature

 Prose in Novels - his is usually written in the form of a narrative, and may be entirely a figment of the
author’s imagination.
Examples:
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (George Orwell)
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else,
these pages must show.” (Charles Dickens)
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (Anna Karenina by Leo
Tolstoy)

 Prose in Speeches - often expresses thoughts and ideas of the speaker.

Examples:
“You can see that there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the
valley of the shadow (of death) again and again before we reach the mountain tops of our desires.”
(No Easy Walk to Freedom speech by Nelson Mandela)
“The poor are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things.”
(Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech by Mother Teresa)
“As for the marriage laws, they are due for a sweeping reform, and an excellent beginning would be to wipe
the existing ones off the books.” (Equal Rights for Women  speech by U.S. Congresswoman Shirley
Chisholm)
 These prose examples have been taken from speeches where the writing is often crisp and
persuasive, and suits the occasion to convey a specific message.

 Prose in Plays - aims to be dramatic and eventful

Examples:
“You can be young without money, but you can’t be old without it.”
(Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams)
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. “(As You Like It by William Shakespeare)
 Prose in plays is often in conversational mode and is delivered by a character. However,
its style stays the same throughout the play according to the personality of the character.

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
DRAMA
 a story in dialogue performed by actors, on a stage, before an audience
 from the Greek word “to do” which also called play
 its elements are story, dialogue, and performance
 It must unfold a series of related and significant events (Beginning, Middle, End)
 The lines spoken by the characters in a play.
 The story is also conveyed through the gestures and movements of the characters.
 It is an integral aspect of drama, because drama is not a purely literary art.
 It is meant to be performed by actors who impersonate the characters that they play.
 Drama is completely realized only in performance.
 There is no narration in drama.
 Drama is enacted, not narrated.
 Drama uses other means of expression and communication such as stage sets, lights, costumes,
make up, human voice, facial expressions, music and dance.

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CRITICAL LITERARY VIEWS AND THEORIES

Literary Theory
 refers to any principles derived from internal analysis of literary texts or from knowledge external to
the text that can be applied in multiple interpretive situations
 body of ideas and methods use in the practical reading of literature
 a description of the underlying principles by which we attempt to understand literature
 by literary theory we refer not to the meaning of a work of literature but to the theories that reveal what
literature can mean (https://iep.utm.edu/literary/).
 the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis
 set of ideas and abstract principles that relate to a particular subject or to a particular view of that
subject (Collins Cobuild Dictionary of the English Language)
 set of ideas and principles that regulate both the writing and the study of literature
 consists of statements about how literary works are written (i.e. the principles that govern the
composition of literary texts) and how they are read (i.e. the principles that govern the analysis and
evaluation of literary texts). (Tolentino, 1997)
 all critical practice regarding literature depends on an underlying structure of ideas in at least two
ways: theory provides a rationale for what constitutes the subject matter of criticism—"the literary"—
and the specific aims of critical practice—the act of interpretation itself (https://iep.utm.edu/literary/)

Classification of Literary Theories

LITERARY THEORY DESCRIPTION

 Are audience-oriented
 According to this theory, art has a purpose, art is designed to
 Pragmatic affect its audience, it may please or teach or motivate the
Theories reader to do certain things
 View literature as a means to an end, an instrument for getting
something done, and tends to judge its value to its success in
achieving that aim
 Mimetic  Explain art as essentially an imitation of aspects of the universe
Theories
 Focus on the artist as the producer of the work of art and the
 Expressive one who establishes the criteria by which the work is judged
Theories  According to this theory, the primary source and subject matter
of a work of art are internal – the perceptions, thoughts, and
feelings of the artist
 Consider the work without connecting it to external points of
 Objective
reference
Theories
 Claim that the literary work should be judged solely by criteria
intrinsic to its own mode of being

LEARNING CONTENTS (Elements and Language of Prose and Drama)

Element of Prose/ Short Story

1. Plot
 series of events and character actions that relate to the central conflict
 exposition, complication, conflict, climax, reversal, and resolution
2. Character
 a person, or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in the action
 main or secondary, hero or villain, protagonist or antagonist, flat or round, static or dynamic
 characterization – the presentation or establishment of a character
3. Setting
 the place where the story takes place
 it also encompasses both the physical locale that frames the action and the specific time

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 atmosphere – mood or feeling that pervades a literary work

4. Point of View
• author – person who wrote the story
• narrator – person who is recounting the events in the story
 refers to two things – the person narrating the events in the story and the position of that narrator
in relation to the events being recounted
1. First person observer – “I’ narrator, the narrator plays a minor role in the story
2. First person participant – “I” narrator, the narrator is a major character in the story
3. Third person omniscient – narrator is not a character in the story, but like a god the writer is capable
of knowing everything including characters’ thoughts and feelings
5. Theme
 the central idea or belief in a story
Elements of Drama
1.Dialogue
 makes up the bulk of drama
 reveals the situation and also introduces the characters
 provides factual information about the characters and reveals aspects of their personality
 provides background information, accompanies actions of the characters, conveys dramatic tensions
and conflicts
 functions as commentary and implies the theme of the play
2. Plot
 the story tells us what happens, the plot tells us why it happens
 it has the same parts as of the plot of a short story
 usually structured with acts and scenes
3. Character
 in drama character and plot work together
 drama uses three methods of characterization: (1) through name and physical appearance; (2)
through action, through what the characters do in the course of the play; and (3) through dialogues

LEARNING CONTENTS (Foregrounding: Meaning, Types and Functions)

FOREGROUNDING

Foregrounding language is an important part of literary language. It plays an irreplaceable role in the
process of conveying the contents and emotion of literary works. Being a core concept in literary stylistics, it
focuses on how to express and enhance the theme meaning and aesthetic value through the choice of
language. Foregrounding theory is of great significance for translators to pursue faithfulness and smoothness
of the target text.
Foregrounding theory is an old and new theory. Shklovsky, a representative of the Russian Formalism
School, believed that foregrounding was a form of art deviating from norms and that the repeated appearance
of anything would weaken people’s sensibility to it. The art of literature was to process the routine or
stereotyped language used in daily life to make people feel fresh and unfamiliar. As a core concept of
stylistics, foregrounding was the symbolic characteristic of literary language forms. Mukarovský (2001), one of
the representatives of the Prague School, argued that foregrounding was a systematic violation of standard
conventions. Leech (2007) held the view that foregrounding was a type of intentional deviation from arts.
Leech and Short divided foregrounding into two types: quantitative foregrounding and qualitative
foregrounding. The former referred to the frequent occurrence of certain language components, and the
latter meant the violation of language rules.
Leech further divided qualitative foregrounding into 8 categories: lexical deviation, phonological
deviation, grammatical deviation, graphological deviation, semantic deviation, dialectal deviation, deviation of
register and deviation of the historical period. (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/236304278.pdf)

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 the term foregrounding has its origin with the Czech theorist Jan Mukarovský: it is how Mukarovský's
original term, aktualisace, was rendered in English by his first translator
 as Mukarovský pointed out, foregrounding may occur in normal, everyday language, such as spoken
discourse or journalistic prose, but it occurs at random with no systematic design
 the notion of foregrounding, a term borrowed from the Prague School of Linguistics, is used by Leech
and Short to refer to ‘artistically motivated deviation’
 linguist M.A.K. Halliday has characterized foregrounding as motivated prominence, providing the
definition: "The phenomenon of linguistic highlighting, whereby some features of the language of a
text stand out in some way" (Nordquist, 2020)
 foregrounding is the practice of making something stand out from the surrounding words or
images and usually makes use of unusual words
 foregrounding is achieved through figures of speech
 concept in literary studies concerning making a linguistic utterance (word, clause, phrase, phoneme,
etc.) stand out from the surrounding linguistic context, from given literary traditions or from more
general world knowledge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foregrounding)
 literary studies and stylistics, foregrounding is a the linguistic strategy of calling attention to certain
language features in order to shift the reader's attention from what is said to how it is said (Nordquist,
2020)
 in systemic functional linguistics, foregrounding refers to a prominent portion of text that contributes
meaning, contrasted with the background, which provides relevant context
 foregrounding can occur on all levels of language (phonology, graphology, morphology, lexis,
syntax, semantics, and pragmatics)
 it is generally used to highlight important parts of a text, to aid memorability and/or to invite
interpretation
 it refers to the range of stylistic effects that occur in literature, whether at the phonetic level (e.g.,
alliteration, rhyme), the grammatical level (e.g., inversion, ellipsis), or the semantic level (e.g.,
metaphor, irony)
 in literary texts, on the other hand, foregrounding is structured: it tends to be both systematic and
hierarchical. That is, similar features may recur, such as a pattern of assonance or a related group of
metaphors, and one set of features will dominate the others and a phenomenon that Jakobson
termed "the dominant" (http://staffnew.uny.ac.id/upload/132231094/pendidikan/STYLISTICS+FOREGROUNDING.pdf)
 in literature, foregrounding may be most readily identified with linguistic deviation: the violation of
rules and conventions, by which a poet transcends the normal communicative resources of the
language, and awakens the reader, by freeing him from the grooves of cliché expression, to a new
perceptivity. Poetic metaphor, a type of semantic deviation, is the most important instance of this
type of foregrounding
 there are two main types of foregrounding: parallelism and deviation
 Parallelism can be described as unexpected regularity, while deviation can be seen as unexpected
irregularity. As the definition of foregrounding indicates, these are relative concepts. Something can
only be unexpectedly regular or irregular within a particular context.

Categories of Foregrounding
1. Lexical deviation mainly refers to the creation of new words and new meaning. Neologisms are
examples of this. However, the term neologism is not limited to coinage of words. It includes, in a
broad sense, novelty in using words. Therefore, some compounds which represent a type of
innovation can also be regarded as instances of lexical deviation:
The widow-making unchilding unfathering deeps. (Hopkins)

2. Graphological deviation refers to the sorting and coding of language symbols in graphological aspect.
This is a type of deviation that is related to the poet’s disregard of the rules of writing. It is the line-by-
line arrangement of the poem on the page with irregular margins. The graphological deviation or the
special way of putting words and lines on the page may add a sort of second meaning to the original
meaning of the verse:
seeker of truth
follow no path
all paths lead where
truth is here (Cummings)

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3. Phonological deviation means the specialization of language pronunciation, involving stress, rhythm
and intonation. This is the deviation in sound or pronunciation which is done deliberately in regard to
preserving the rhyme, as when the noun wind is pronounced like the verb wind. Leech considers the
phonological deviation as “irregularities of pronunciation”.

4. Semantic deviation refers to the abnormal, absurd or ambiguous meaning of a sentence component.
It is a sort of deviation related to the irrational element of meaning. It leads the mind to
comprehension on a figurative plane. Concerning semantic deviation, Leech believes that in all great
writings this irrational element is present. He considers it so important an element of literary
language. While encountering semantic deviation, the figurative meaning becomes necessary
because the literal meaning gets absurd. In other words, semantic deviation occurs when the literal
interpretation of a sentence or a line is nonsensical, and there remains no choice but figurative
interpretation of the sentence.

5. Grammatical deviation is about language uses that do not conform to grammatical rules of the
language. It is a kind of deviation in which the poet disregards the rules of sentence or syntactic
features:
Our heart’s charity’s health’s fire, …. (Hopkins)

6. Dialectal deviation, or to use Leech’s term, dialectism, refers to the borrowing of features of socially
or regionally defined dialects. It occurs when the writer enters into his words or structures which are
from a dialect different from that of standard language; using words like heydeguyes (a type of
dance), rontes (young bullocks), wimble (nimble), …
7. Deviation of Register - In poetry, it refers to borrowing language from other non-poetic registers or
using the features of different registers in the same text: And many a bandit, not so gently born
Kills vermin every winter with the Quorn. (Auden)

8. Deviation of the Historical Period - In this kind of deviation the writer uses archaic words or structures
which are no longer used in standard language to enhance the aesthetic value of the literary work.
Leech calls historical deviation „archaism‟ and defines it as “the survival of the past into the language
of present time”
(http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/jltr/vol02/06/17.pdf)

Foregrounding is the opposite of automatization, that is, the deautomatization of an act; the more an act
is automatized, the less it is consciously executed; the more it is foregrounded, the more completely
conscious does it become. Objectively speaking: automatization schematizes an event; foregrounding means
the violation of the scheme.

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LEARNING ACTIVITY

Direction: Analyze the paragraph below (Sillitoe’s text) and be able to identify foregrounded elements.
(Present your answers in paragraphs)

A. Lexical Deviations
B. Phonological Deviations
C. Syntactic Deviations
D. Semantic Deviations

Now you’d think, and I’d think, and everybody with a bit of imagination would think, that we’d done as
clean a job as could ever be done, that with the baker’s shop being at least a mile from where we lived, and
with not a soul having seen us, and what with the fog and the fact that we weren’t more than five minutes in
the place, that the coppers should never have been able to trace us. But then, you’d be wrong, I’d be wrong
and everybody else would be wrong, no matter how much imagination was diced out between us.

REFERENCES

Baldonado, Rizza S. et.al., (2013). Readings from World Literature: Understanding Peoples’ Cultures,
Traditions and Beliefs. Quezon City: Great Books Publishing.

Tolentino, Delfin L. (1997). Literary Theory and Critical Practice. University of the Philippines Open University
Systems.

Leech, G.N. and Short, M.H. (2007). Style in Fiction (2nd ed.) London: Longman.

Hamilton, Edith (1998). Mythology (Pyramus and Thisbe). USA: Little, Brown and Company.

Nordquist, Richard (2016) https://www.thoughtco.com/stylistics-language-studies-1692000.

Mukarovsky, J. (2001). Standard language and poetic language. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language
Education Press.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foregrounding
https://iep.utm.edu/literary/
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/236304278.pdf
http://www.skase.sk/Volumes/JTL42/pdf_doc/06.pdf
https://literarydevices.net/prose/
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-prose-learn-about-the-differences-between-prose-and-poetry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose
http://staffnew.uny.ac.id/upload/132231094/pendidikan/STYLISTICS+FOREGROUNDING.pdf

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