The charm of essays lies in reviving internal memories with personalized language. But any definition is meaningful only if it has constraints, and prose is no exception. Under its rich plasticity, the four elements of prose make the writer's experience a richer thought.
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Personal essays have the basic form of short non-fiction literary works. Its short history can be counted from the late16th century, when Montaigne began to write prose, trying to integrate subjectivity and objectivity into a new form of prose.
Montaigne lived on his farm in Dordogne at that time. As a retired lawyer, in order to keep himself busy, he began to write essays, describing everything around him, writing wherever he thought, not sticking to form.
He believes that "everyone has all human nature", so his works include Xianyi, young people and old people. In his article, he will talk to his invisible neighbor. These articles read as if he were talking to us, so direct and kind. He not only gave us his own views, but also made us feel fresh and happy.
In the 20th century, Adeline Virginia Woolf's essays balanced the theme and style, making them play an equally important role. In short, "essays are unique and the closest weapon to truth." In his article, Philip Loppert described the communication between the author and the reader as "one person tells another person who wants to listen".
How to define personal essays, or what are called informal and literary essays? In the preface of "Selected Best Prose in America" published by 1988, Robert Atwan has explained that the reason why writers have persistent enthusiasm for prose is that this form has great plasticity. He pointed out four elements of personal essays: style, form, drama and authenticity.
1. Style: Essays have a strong personal style and are written in the first person. It is not enough to present the whole picture of the experience completely; Writers must establish their own views.
As a writer, you don't have to be afraid to speak your mind. At this point, you can learn from Doris Lessing, who wrote in the Golden Notebook that the way to deal with subjectivity is to treat each individual as a micro-world, and at the same time sublimate individual experience to make the characters universal. When you honestly share some of your profound experiences, it will move readers, thus making your personal experience universal.
2. Form: Prose is at the junction of novel and poetry. Writers will express their personal experiences in the form of stories and polish them with poetic methods.
Explaining the story will make the statement sound less abrupt, while poetic words will expand the meaning. It is the balance between story and poem that makes this article so charming-flexible and adaptable to any changing form; It is profound and can show wonderful personal experiences.
Dramatic: As Dillard once wrote, no theme is untouchable. The whole world can be the theme of presentation-as long as the theme is dramatic enough.
Prose is not the eight-part essay taught by the school before. Atwan recalled that once when he read an essay by Dillard to his students, the students thought it was not an essay at all, because it was too dramatic for prose.
However, personal prose is such a narrative of real life. It can only be said that real life itself is full of drama, and writers just experience it.
4. Truth: This article leaves the truth to the author and readers. As Virginia Woolf said, "Prose is sui generis." Stories don't have to leave a truth for readers, and prose is different. This is the biggest difference between short stories and essays.
Usually people think that prose is a short story in disguise, or on the contrary, short stories are pseudo-prose. But this is not the case at all. Essays are usually based on real events, and the author will make a profound internal interpretation of them, but they will not be very thorough, and readers must distinguish them themselves.
As Robert Antoine said in his essay Rewriting Prose, "The value of prose lies in the idea of flying constantly."
Katherine Norris wrote in the preface of "America's Best Prose 200 1" that a wonderful essay is like a dialogue between the author and the reader. When reading the first paragraph, the reader will find what he wants to hear.
Prose will tell him the world he didn't know before, and bring him an idea, a memory, an experience through prose, and an emotion that becomes richer through the experience of essayists. Norris emphasizes here that * * * is the key to all this.
So how did the essayist do all this? Let's look at a well-structured essay. This is a novel essay by George R. Clay, which is selected from the Fourth Style (Spring 200 1).
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Where it all started.
Tuesday, June 9th, around 1 1: 30, is a normal morning. An amazing thing happened to me, but when I think about it, it seems nothing.
This is Cambridge. I thought the garbage was collected every Wednesday morning, but there seems to be a mistake. Anyway, I drove to the end along Mass Avenue and then turned into Lee Street, intending to find a parking place, only to find myself stuck behind the sanitation garbage truck.
Lee street is not a main road, so it is a one-way street. Cars are parked on both sides of the road, so it is impossible to pass. The garbage truck is orange, which is the kind of engineering truck.
Two workers are cleaning-one on each side of the street. The man who works in the west (on my left) is a small man with gray hair and gold-rimmed glasses. He looks like an assistant clerk, except that he has no arms, and he has a look of "Don't stare at me".
The other person is ugly: there is a cross mark on his chin (this kind of person often appears in James Bond movies), a bit like Fana Del Lang, listless, strong and slow. He was patient with those trash cans, lifted them gracefully and handled them gently without any resentment. Although his face was slightly disgusted, he just expressed the meaning that "this kind of work is really terrible".
When he finished cleaning the east side of Lee Street, he stopped outside a house with a garden. Looking around on the sidewalk, I found that no one else paid attention to myself; He looked into the window again to make sure that there was no one in the room. Then, carefully, he made up his mind, raised his long right leg and jumped in. He crossed a long road along the street and came to the middle of the garden, where many plants with huge leaves and flowers of different colors were planted. Is it marigold? I don't know. )
He bent down, bent down, bent down again, and then suddenly buried his face in the largest leaf-he took a deep breath and didn't look up for a long time, at least for half a minute. The whole process did not show any change in his mood, neither happy nor unhappy, nor nervous about being discovered.
He just stood expressionless, then carefully withdrew from the garden and went on working. I think Flannery OConnor (American novelist and critic, an important spokesman for American literature) was right-this is where it all started: to feel.
This is an interesting story. How did Clay make you follow a sanitation garbage truck and realize that "everything comes from feeling"? Let's look at four elements:
Style: Clay is talking to you; Something happened in the morning, he said. Not very important, but wonderful. As a reader, you will immediately succumb to this style of writing, because it is like a friend talking to you.
Form: The full-text narrative is clear. The whole story was completed in a period of time-starting with the orange garbage truck full of poetic details-two men, a little man with gray hair and gold-rimmed glasses; Big men are lazy and sloppy. The story goes on, scene after scene, and every detail is carefully constructed.
Dramatic: As a reader, you will think that the beginning of the story is old-fashioned, but when the lazy big man appears and walks on the sidewalk, he writes that he bends down, bends lower and lower, and you begin to be attracted. What is he doing? It was not until he suddenly buried his face in the biggest leaf and sucked for at least half a minute that the big man began to touch you.
Truth: Clay is done. The man returned to his work, deadpan, but brand-new. Then he quoted Flannery OConnor's view that everything comes from feeling.
Clay used these four elements to write an attractive and powerful personal article.
Editor of this issue | Tang Yi
Recommended reading
"Story Writing Camp"