LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:5 May 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Who Wins The Battle Between Two Genres?
A Comparison of Prose and Poetry

Professor Maratab Ali
Anum Nadeem
Hafiza Ayesha Nazir
Amber Khan
Zahida, M.A. English
Ejaz Ahamd, M.A. English
Mohsin Ali, M.A. English

Abstract

This article encompasses views of different people from different fields about different genres of writings. It majorly includes a comparison of prose and poetry in terms of their appealing ability. The article includes a survey by asking different people about their opinion. Two questions were catered to the participants that gave us the required material for research. Writings have always been one of influential way of shaping people ideology. It had been from very early eras a source of changing one’s thoughts about a particular thing. All of the religions have their holy books that they consider as their guiding authority. The stories of ancient times also had a great influence of people. It is a best medium to portray one’s imagination. It not only changed people thoughts but also served as a motivation to discover and invent new things around us. There are major two purposes of writings. One is writing that enhances our knowledge. It gives us knowledge about history and other things and the other is for the sake of pleasure. Mostly the informative writing is linked with prose and the pleasure provision writing is associated with poetry. This is what this article tries to resolve that which genre has a great influence on people.

Keywords: Prose and poetry, appealing ability, pleasure’s sake, knowledge sake.

Introduction

The ability of writing have been a major weapon in hands of people form very early ages. This weapon however did not aim at destruction always. It fulfilled various positive and beneficent purposes. It had been very resourceful medium to share one’s thoughts and imagination. However, there had been paucity of such cases when these writings acted as conflict raiser but mostly they have a good intention if understood properly. This article majorly deals with the two genres of writings: Prose and poetry. Poetry has been one of the greatest and beautiful medium for presentation of thought. However, it had been criticized by many critics. That is not something surprising because change is always threatening and when a medium like that became fore grounded, it emphasized critics to write about its pitfalls. Going back to Greek Ages, we find that Plato, who a great was known philosopher of that time, banished poets from his rule. He was not buoyed up by poets for several reasons. He said that poetry is a mere imitation and the poet himself is unaware of what is he imitating. He was of the view that poets are deceivers as they deceive the readers by taking them away from reality. He also said that poetry morally corrupts people. Later Puritans came who also sabotaged the poetry. Poetry dealt with pleasure and imagination and Puritans only focused on life as a mere punishment to the individuals. They had a belief that individuals here are not for enjoying the life so they also raised voice against poetry or any form of entertainment. It was in Elizabethan Age that a warrior came out who took the responsibility to defend poetry for all the charges that had been put upon it by Plato. He was Sir Philip Sydney who wrote a book An Apology for poetry or it is also known as Defense of Poesy. In his book, he wrote that poetry is an imitation but imitation does not mean to copy or reproduce but rather it transforms. He stated the function of poetry to be that of providing pleasure. Its purpose is to delight and teach.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Professor Maratab Ali
University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus
maratab_abid@yahoo.com

Anum Nadeem
M-Phil (Literature) Semester II
University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus
anumnadeem20@gmail.com

Hafiza Ayesha Nazir
M-Phil (literature) Semester II
University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus
ash_smiley28@yahoo.com

Amber Khan
University of Lahore Sargodha Campus
Amberkhan870@gmail.com

Zahida, M.A. English
University of Lahore Sarodha Campus
Umairhafeez72.uh@gmail.com

Ejaz Ahamd, M.A. English
University of Lahore Sargodha Campus
Afridiejaz81@gmail.com

Mohsin Ali, M.A. English
University Of Lahore Sargodha Campus
mohsinaliasim@gmail.com
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