Science and English Prose Style in the Third Quarter of the Seventeenth Century

PMLA ◽  
1930 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 977-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard F. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Important Influence ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
Human Personality ◽  
Literary Style ◽  
Unpleasant Sensation ◽  
The Third ◽  
English Prose ◽  
Prose Style

Literary style, like human personality, is a compound exceedingly difficult of analysis, for when its more obvious constituents are made clear, there still remains an illusive element, consciousness of which leaves the analyst with the unpleasant sensation of not having reached the bottom of the matter. As the most complex phenomenon in literature, style is the resultant of all the forces, known and unknown, underlying literary development, and the method and extent of the contribution made by each of these forces are a matter of probable inference rather than of positive demonstration. For that reason, any attempt, however ambitious, to account for the style of a literary epoch must be content with pointing out those more obvious influences that are combined and reflected in speech and writing, and with ignoring other factors which may escape detection. Under the protection of this confession I shall attempt to make manifest what seems to me the most important influence instrumental in changing the luxuriant prose of the Commonwealth into that of a diametrically opposite nature in the Restoration.

A Study of English Prose Style from Elizabeth to Victoria: Discussion

1886 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. vi
Author(s):  
Th. W. Hunt ◽  
Henry E. Shepherd ◽  
J. M. Garnett ◽  
T. Whiting Bancroft ◽  
Henry Wood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
English Prose ◽  
Prose Style

English Prose Style from Alfred to More : A Bibliography

1968 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 248-259
Author(s):  
James R. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
English Prose ◽  
Prose Style

The Grand Style and the ‘genera dicendi’ in Ancient Rhetoric

Traditio ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 1-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debora K. Shuger
Keyword(s):  
Good Deal ◽  
The Other ◽  
Classical Rhetoric ◽  
Ancient Rhetoric ◽  
English Prose ◽  
Prose Style ◽  
Plain Style ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Musical Formalism

The standard, and practically the only, study of thegenera dicendiin classical rhetoric, ‘The Origin and Meaning of the Ancient Characters of Style,’ was published in 1905 by G. L. Hendrickson. In it Hendrickson argued that the plain style orgenus tenueoriginated in and remained firmly associated with philosophical dialectic, while the oratorical style (including both thegenus grandeandgenus medium) descended from sophistic and, in particular, Isocratic prose. The effect of this paper has been two-fold: a simultaneous exaltation of the plain style as the only rhetorical expression of serious and original thought and the conflation of the other two genera, these being criticized on the grounds that they appealed to the ear rather than the mind and were designed to exploit the emotions rather than inform reason. This effect can be observed most clearly in the subsequent scholarship on English prose style, particularly in the seminal essays of Morris Croll, who (to simplify a good deal) basically treats Renaissance prose style as the triumph of an introspective, searching, plain style over the musical formalism of Ciceronianconcinnitas.Since Croll, the term plain style has generally become an honorific appellation in English scholarship at the expense of an inadequately differentiated grand and middle style (these in turn being identified with Ciceronianism).

Hugh Blair as an Analyzer of English Prose Style

1958 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward P. J. Corbett
Keyword(s):  
English Prose ◽  
Prose Style ◽  
Hugh Blair

DIASPORA AND IDENTITY IN NAIPAUL’S WORKS : A SELECT STUDY

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (66) ◽  
pp. 15461-15466
Author(s):  
Ankita Chaudhary
Keyword(s):  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
English Prose ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Prose Style ◽  
Contemporary Writers

“Write what you know” - this is the age-old advice said by someone to all the novelists. Surajprasad Naipaul, generally known as V. S. Naipaul, took it more seriously than others. Naipaul’s grandparents migrated from Uttar Pradesh India to Trinidad. His grandfather started working as an indentured laborer in the sugarcane estates there. They faced many problems regarding settlement and adjustment in this new cultural environment. That’s why Naipaul’s works are replete with the themes of diaspora. He applied his uniquely careful prose style to the point where the observer has called him the greatest living writer of English prose. Often known as the world’s writer, Naipaul is both one of the most highly regarded and one of the most controversial of contemporary writers. Much of his work deals with individuals who feel estranged from the societies. The present paper is an effort to analyze his select works based on diaspora and identity. Different characters in his fiction and non-fiction works seem to be in search of their identity in this world. Cultural-clash and hybridity, these twin themes, are also dominant in his works and I have tried to highlight all these diaspora-related issues in this paper.

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