Prose is a branch of prose and a variant of argumentative writing, which is both argumentative and lyrical. They are usually short in length and varied in form. Writers often use various rhetorical devices to convey their views and emotions in twists and turns, and the language is smart, gentle and ironic. This is a popular style in a society where words are forbidden.
Definition and attribution of the concept of prose
There are different opinions about the concept and attribution of essays, which can be roughly divided into the following categories:
1 belongs to the category of prose in literature. This division accounts for the vast majority. such as
(1) An Introduction to Literature (135) [1] classifies literary works into four categories: novels, poems, essays and plays, and clearly classifies prose as essays. Excerpts are as follows:
"Essay: Literary thesis is a kind of prose, characterized by the combination of lyric and political theory, eclecticism, rapid reflection of life events and people's thoughts and feelings, integration of logical power and fighting passion, and incisive exposition in the image. Known for being short, pithy, vivid and sharp, it has profound ideological content, sharp fighting and full artistic persuasion. In the history of China literature, many ancient prose with progressive ideological content and artistic value are mostly famous works. In modern times, due to the advocacy and practice of revolutionary writers represented by Lu Xun, essays became extremely sharp spears and daggers to expose and attack the enemy, and also became weapons to criticize bad tendencies among the people. Essays are mainly used to satirize and expose, and can also be used to praise new ideas, new characters and new styles. "
(2) the 20th century China prose history [2] (page 5):
"Essays are essays, mainly discussing and criticizing; Essays mainly focus on extensive social criticism and civilization criticism, and generally affirm and praise truth, goodness and beauty by exposing and criticizing falsehood, ugliness and ugliness; The essay format is rich and varied, short and flexible, and it requires rationality, lyricism and vividness of discussion and criticism in art, with distinctive irony and humorous comedy color. "
(3) Xinhua Dictionary 200 1 revised edition [3]:
"Essay, a kind of prose, is a kind of literary paper which is mainly about discussion and lyrical. Known for being short, sharp and sharp, there are many styles, such as essays, miscellaneous feelings, miscellaneous talks, notes, etc. "
(4) Ci Hai [4]:
"Essay, a kind of prose, is an essay. Generally short, lively and sharp. The content is all-encompassing, with rich and diverse formats, including miscellaneous feelings, rambling, short comments, essays, notes and so on. There are many such articles in China's works on hundred schools of thought since the Warring States Period. After the May 4th Movement, with the efforts of Lu Xun and others, it became a literary newspaper that directly and quickly reflected the real life of society or expressed the author's thoughts. It is good at ideology and controversy. In art, he is alert in words and full of feelings in words. He often talks about people or things with the help of image metaphors, which is very powerful. "
(5) "Modern Chinese Dictionary" and "Modern Chinese Dictionary" in 2002 supplement [5]:
"Essays, a kind of modern prose, do not stick to a certain form, but focus on discussion and narration."
2. It belongs to literature, but not to prose. For example:
(1) China's essay history [6] (page 8):
"Essays are a literary style, including novels, plays, poems and essays. It can be said to be a kind of marginal literature. "
(2) Liu Xiqing's artistic prose: aesthetic norms of contemporary prose [7].
"Reportage, historical biography, essays and essays should be separated from the' matrix' of prose, and' self-reliance' should be independent. The new' literature classification' can adopt the ten-point method: poetry; Novel; Dramatic literature; Film and television literature; Reportage; Historical biographical literature; Prose and essays; Artistic prose; National and folk literature; Children's literature. "
(3) Liu, a famous essay editor and critic, "What is essay" [8]: "In short, (essay) is a short critical and satirical literary work of art, but it is not a novel or essay."
3. It belongs to a "cross-type" literary genre.
(1) Introduction to Literature [9] classifies both essays and reportage as "cross" literature, also known as "marginal" literature genre, which has both literary and non-literary attributes. (See P86 and P87)
"Essays are a kind of' cross' style, which has both the nature of political theory and the characteristics of literature."
4. It belongs to "literary argumentative essay"
(1) Modern Chinese Standard Dictionary [10] defines "essays" as follows:
"Essays, mainly about discussion, are characterized by narrative and lyrical literary argumentations, which can quickly reflect social problems, be lively and combative."
Although there are different opinions on the definition of the concept of essays, each has its own emphasis, but regarding the attribution of essays, most people agree to classify essays as literary genres, and almost everyone thinks that essays are literary or literary! As a result, this view was instilled in students in the field of education, and the whole society accepted this concept of essays, which caused many misunderstandings and confusions.
The essential characteristics of prose
Essays mainly express the author's thoughts and opinions through "reasoning", that is, through "reasoning" to achieve the purpose of social criticism, civilized criticism and political criticism. The author analyzes something, or ideology, or words and deeds of a certain character, or some objective existence (such as social system, political order, etc.). ), expounds his views on love and hate, approval, opposition and evaluation, and explains the reasons and consequences of this view. "Reasoning" is the goal and process of prose.
Let's analyze how the passage is "reasoned"
(1) common reasoning methods in composition
(1) Deduction method: using the author's thoughts and opinions (of course, explain the source and reasons of opinions when necessary), judge and analyze events, someone's words and deeds, ideology and various existing institutional orders, so as to get unique opinions and opinions.
For example, in Xu Huaiqian's Meditation on Prosperity [17], the author uses such a standard ("The real prosperity includes not only economic indicators such as developed economy and well-off people's livelihood, but also a humanistic indicator, that is, whether every citizen is allowed to maintain his own personality and allow them to make their own voices." ) to measure the times called prosperous times in history (the rule of Wenjing, the rule of Zhenguan, the prosperity of Kaiyuan, and the prosperity of Kanggan), and then draw the conclusion that there is no other era that can be called prosperous times except the Tang Dynasty, and especially infer that this view should be used for reference for today's "prosperous times". There is Shu Xueshan's What if the country betrays her people [18] and so on.
(2) layer push: from the occurrence and existence of events, ask questions. Give a simple and superficial answer first, and then question or question the answer, so as to further analyze and guide readers to the root and essence of the problem. Just like peeling off the bamboo shell layer by layer, the core is finally presented to the readers.
For example, Zhang Ming's History Textbook from Zhao Wei to China [19] first borrows people's doubts about Zhao Wei's apology ("I don't know much about that history"): Do the students of the Film Academy know nothing about the war of aggression against China and War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression? Then after analysis, I gave a positive answer. Why? In the end, it comes down to one point. The focus of our middle school history textbooks is not to truthfully record the aggression of the Japanese aggressors and the heroic resistance of our soldiers and civilians, but to focus on demonstrating who is positive and who is negative, and who plays more and who plays less. Of course, it is difficult for children to receive the educational effect they deserve. Similarly, Liu Xingyu's "A Probe into the Cause of Yue Fei's Death" [20] and so on.
(3) Induction: By analyzing multiple events of a certain type or multiple aspects of the same event, we can find out their similar reasons or results and get a new point of view.
For example, Hu Bin's "The Root of Tragedy" [2 1] exposes and analyzes all aspects of the whole process of the Dashun "1.24" shipwreck accident (such as media reports, actions taken by merchant ships and maritime safety bureaus after receiving help, rescue actions, aftermath treatment, etc.) and shows them to the world. So the author came to the conclusion that 280 lives were destroyed by numbness, indifference and pathological mechanisms all over the society, so the author found the root of the tragedy. Similarly, Tom Chang's Corruption and System (in the reform of state-owned enterprises: sale, asset reorganization, property right reform, demutualization, grasping the big and letting the small, revitalizing state-owned assets, etc. ) has a characteristic: at the expense of serious asset loss [22].
(4) Contrast method: Look at the business, that is, find out the differences by comparing the two (or more), and then analyze and comment on the differences and their reasons. There are comparisons between foreign countries and their own countries; Comparison between new material theory and old material theory; Similar problems, comparison of different treatment methods and so on.
For example, Zhang Xinyang's View of American Heroes [23] examines and criticizes China people's long-standing dedication, heroism, selflessness and heroic view with the American humanized heroic view.
Another example: Feng Ke's "Napoleon said this" [24], Wang De's "Horse Hurts Mo Wen" [25].
The above methods are often used in combination of two or more in essay creation, and these methods are common in essay creation. Undoubtedly, there are other special reasoning methods in the essay: for example, using some special images containing special "reason" to explain the reason (mentioned below) and so on.
(2) Image analysis in some essays.
Does the essay have an image? Some prose images are vivid, but the images in prose mainly serve the purpose of "reasoning" to enhance the vivid, lively and humorous style and enhance persuasiveness.
1 borrow an image.
The "images" of some essays are inferred with the help of existing literary images, historical figures and even animals, such as "A person unfamiliar with Princess Diana" [26], in which Ah Q, a novel character written by Lu Xun, wrote a letter to the British princess to show the different relations between the two governments and people. Another example is Zhang Feng's Black Cat and Mouse [27], which satirizes the present situation of our society with the images of cats and mice.
② Generally, it is a general, rough, incomplete and not too detailed image.
In other words, it can't be compared with images in literary works. For example, Li Changping's "Sun Zhigang Died for Me" [28], in which the author witnessed a description of the process of Beijing police stopping people in the street and verifying and arresting undocumented migrant workers on the bus, which is less than 300 words. Therefore, it is more appropriate to say that it is not so much a description as a concise witness record or news report. For literature, this is not a successful image building and plot description, but it is very common for essays.
Prose is shaped for reasoning. Essays are generally short, so it is necessary to explain the truth and achieve the goals of social criticism, civilized criticism and political criticism. Therefore, it is impossible to describe the appearance, dialogue, movements and psychology of the characters in detail, to design various contradictory and ups and downs plots, to describe the environment and to create artistic conception. So generally speaking, the images in essays are generally general and rough.
③ Use some special images containing special "reasons" to explain the reasons.
Are there any essays written by images without reasoning? A: Yes! There must be a condition for this kind of essays, that is, the truth contained in this image is well known, which means that the views are not only innovative, but also hidden in the image and extremely "bent". Generally speaking, there are not many successful examples of this kind of prose.
For example, Wang Dahai's "White-headed Palace Maids Say Xuanzong" [29], after reading the memoir "Dancing with the Central Leaders" written by a female art troupe member (she was transferred to the capital in the late 1950s and early 1960s to perform a "major political task"-dancing with the Central Leaders, leading a rich spiritual and material life), the author has an association: Lenovo Yan 'an's Shiwei sang every night during the hard years in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Reminiscent of her personal "spiritual and material wealth" era, millions of hungry people everywhere; Lenovo Tang Poetry: In the faded old palace, Hua Gong and Jimo Hong, the ladies-in-waiting are already white-haired, discussing the grand occasion of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ... The presentation of the article is like a picture in a movie. As an essay, its greatest success lies in daring to show its unique "images" (images), and using the profound ideological weapons understood by the world contained in these "images" to stab the central leaders in the 1950s and 1960s (many of them are still alive), exposing the corruption of the chief officials and the strong class contrast of "the drunkard's intention is not to drink, but the road is to freeze to death", which makes the article extremely sharp. Undeniably, this is a rare and successful essay with a special image.
(3) The real reason why some essays are dry.
Some people criticize: "Some reasoning essays are dry because the works lack literariness (that is, imagery)." Is it? No? In fact, there are two reasons for the dryness of essays: First, there is no deep ideological and theoretical foundation. Second, I have not mastered the rules and skills of reasoning (including the ability of logical reasoning and the skills of using "image" reasoning). On the contrary, many works pay attention to literariness, but tell stories in novels, but they can't explain the truth in depth and downplay criticism. For example, Zheng Liu's witticism recording and Zhuang Zhou's buying water [30] have this tendency.
(4) The essays are not all political or argumentative.
Concept and characteristics of political style [3 1];
The written style can be divided into commercial style, scientific style, political style and literary style.
Political discourse, also called propaganda and agitation, publicizes and mobilizes the masses by discussing various issues in social and political life. Political style includes editorials, comments, declarations and short comments.
Characteristics of political style;
A, because it is necessary to make concrete analysis, systematic discussion, rigorous argumentation and appeal to readers' rational thinking when expounding various problems, it must be very logical.
B. In order to achieve the purpose of propaganda and agitation, vivid or humorous verbal expressions are often used, and rhetorical devices such as metaphor, parallelism, allusions, rhetorical questions, irony and duality are often used.
C. In the choice of words, in addition to a large number of written words, some vivid spoken words and archaic words are occasionally used. Extensive use of political and technical terms.
(2) the concept and characteristics of argumentative [32]:
Argumentative writing is a kind of writing with the purpose of giving play to one's own opinions, criticizing others' opinions, debating the pros and cons of things and making people recognize them. Argumentative writing is to state rebuttal opinions, put forward one's own views and convince readers.
An argumentative essay requires rigorous structure, clear arguments, proofs and conclusions, and the arguments, arguments and argumentation processes are indispensable.
③ Some compositions do not conform to the concepts and characteristics of political style and argumentative writing.
Judging from a large number of essays at present, it should be said that most of them conform to the nature and characteristics of political discourse style and argumentative discourse style. However, some articles still do not conform to the nature and characteristics of political theory style and argumentative style, and do not belong to political theory style or argumentative style.
For example:
In the form of meeting minutes: summary of Chen's seminar on prohibition of alcohol (selected papers, No.5, 1996)
In the form of a question and answer: Fill in the blanks of Wei Minglun's "Little Home" (Selected Works No.7, 1997).
In the form of absurd stories: Ceng Ying's death list (Selected Works No.7, 200 1)
In the form of a new story: Zhang Feng's New Biography of Grinding Needles with Iron Palm (in Selected Works, No.9, 2004)
In the form of rewriting report: Zhu Jianguo rewrites Ye Qiaobo (Selected WorksNo. 1, 65438,0998).
Epilogue: Jia Pingwa's Ci Yan Shu (Selected Works No.4, 1998)
In the form of duality: Su Zhongjie's new version of Enlightenment of Temperament (in Selected Works, No.2, 2000)
In the form of anthropomorphic fairy tales: Simao's life with a hundred-dollar bill (Selected Works No.8 1999)
In the form of manual provisions: a handbook for new cadres in Zhang Chen (Selected Works, No.5, 2000)
Sentence-making homework for primary school students: Ye Dachun's "Dan Ge" (selected essays,10,2000).
In the Form of Chronology and Annotation —— Yat Lung Wong's Comment on Chronology of Cheng (Selected Works, No.2, 2006,54,38+0)
In the form of philosophical quotations: Wang Dahai's Leaves of Thought (Selected Works No.4, 200 1)
In the form of hospital diagnosis report: Su Zhongjie's report on patient Wu Conscience (Proceedings of the Seventh Session, 200 1).
In the form of a press release: a manuscript written by Zhang Xinyang for a reporter with a class (Selected Works,No. 1 2002).
In the form of a diary: Yan's diary (in Selected Works, No.9, 2004)
In the form of a brief introduction: A Brief Introduction to Humanoid Animals by Mou Pizhi (in Selected Papers, No.9, 2004)
In the form of literary essays: Li Fang's If Liang Shanbo Does Not Join the Army (Selected Works, No.2, 2003)
As well as the aforementioned Wang Dahai's "White-headed Maids Say Xuanzong", there are no comments throughout, only pictures.
…………
Enough! It is enough to see that the formal characteristics of essays have gone beyond the scope of political or argumentative style, and even manuals, chronologies, hospital diagnosis reports and other forms can be adopted by essays, and they do not necessarily have strict logic.
It can be seen that the view that essays belong to political or argumentative style is not comprehensive and difficult to hold water.
Therefore, prose does not belong to politics or argumentative style. In a word, essays are "miscellaneous" and cannot be attributed to a certain style at all, but only to articles.