Origins of Prose Fiction

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 Origin

The origin of prose fiction as a literary genre is traced to the ancient world of "the Mediterranean basin and the period roughly 800 B.C. - A.D. 400." In this place and time, the intellectual and religious foundations of the modern Western outlook were laid. The literature of that world, "which is still the background of our institutions, attitudes, and thought, was written in three languages – Hebrew, Greek, and Latin" (Mack 1). The people who created these languages lived separately with their independent civilizations, but the "development of the Mediterranean area into one economic and political unit brought them into contact with one another and produced a fusion of their typical attitudes of Western thought" (Mack 1), reflected in these early writings.

Some scholars refer to these early fictional narratives as extended fictional prose and see them as the antecedents of prose fiction. However, it is possible that some early prose fictional writers may not have been aware of these early writings but may have been influenced by verse epics. The origin of prose fiction in this course material is associated with early epics, some stories in the Bible, romances, and the works of notable writers like Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Thomas Malory, and others.

The development of prose fiction as a genre in Europe emerged with the availability of paper, giving writers the opportunity to document and circulate their compositions, which contained entertaining exploration of subject matters concerning an individual.

 The Epic

An epic is a long narrative poem that tells a story involving a hero. The Western tradition of prose fiction dates back to the verse epics of the earliest centuries, like the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (1300-1000 BC), Indian epics like The Ramayana (400 BCE and 200 C), and Mahabharata (4th Century BC). However, these were not as popular as the Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf (c. 750-1000) rediscovered in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in early modern Europe.

Other notable epics include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (9th or 8th Century BC), and Virgil’s Aeneid (29-19 BC), which Western scholars have been reading since the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 18th Century, modern French prose translations brought Homer to a wider public, and with this publicity, his works were accepted as forerunners of the modern novel, the genre of prose fiction. Other ancient prose narratives that influenced modern prose fiction include the incredible stories of Lucian of Samosata and Lucius Apuleius’ The Golden Ass.

Some of these were presented in verse (poetic forms), though in the form of narratives, while others were presented in prose. In whatever form it is presented, the epic tells imaginative or historical stories that are artistically constructed, in a sequential order with a beginning, a middle, and an end, just like modern prose fiction. However, many of them lack the causality and verisimilitude that are vital characteristics of prose fiction as a literary genre. We will illustrate with The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is regarded as the oldest.

 The Epic of Gilgamesh

This epic is regarded as the first great heroic narrative in the literary world. Its origins stretch back to the margins of prehistory, and its evolution spans millennia. Tablets containing portions of Gilgamesh have been found at sites throughout the Middle East and in all languages in cuneiform characters, wedge-shaped characters incised in clay or stone (Mack 12).

This epic presents the adventures of a legendary hero, Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk, who is a tyrannical and arrogant ruler. His people complain of his oppressive and tyrannical tendencies to the Sumerian gods. The gods responded by creating Enkidu, a powerful figure with a blend of human and animal qualities who is raised by wild beasts. He becomes a threat to the community, but fortunately, a prostitute seduces and transforms him. The prostitute leads him to Uruk for a confrontation with Gilgamesh in fulfillment of the original intent for his creation. Ironically, their confrontation results in "a deep bond of friendship," and both, as companions, direct their "prodigious energies toward heroic achievements" (Mack 13). They get involved in several adventures, encountering humans, animals, and gods, achieving popularity and fame. In one such adventure, they encounter Ishtar, a powerful woman who tries to seduce Gilgamesh but is rebuffed. The woman is enraged by this just but harsh rejection, so she sends the Bull of Heaven against the people of Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are forced to destroy the Bull, but Enkidu dies in the process.

The death of his companion "reveals the hollowness of mortal fame and leads Gilgamesh to undertake a solitary journey in search of the secrets of immortality" (Mack 25). This specific goal leads him to a series of adventures and encounters with wild beasts, monsters, difficult and hazardous terrains. He is discouraged at every step but perseveres, finally meeting Utnapishtim, who listens and promises to help him. Unfortunately, he fails the two tests given by Utnapishtim. The first test is to remain awake for six days and seven nights, but he cannot; the second test is to get the plant that assures eternal rejuvenation. He finds the plant but carelessly loses it to the serpent. He returns disillusioned but consoled because Utnapishtim assured him that his worldly accomplishments will endure beyond his own lifetime.

I have summarized the story, but get any good literary anthology and read the full version of this epic for a better understanding and appreciation. It contains a story but is inclined towards fantasy instead of realism, which is the hallmark of prose fiction.

The Bible

Some scholars refer to the Bible as the forerunner of modern prose fiction. This group uses Genesis, the first book of the Bible, as a point of reference. This book, which presents the account of the creation and fall of man, is regarded by these scholars as the Hebrew myth of creation. However, Christians and some other scholars insist that it is an authentic historical account. In this course, we are not going to study the Bible as a text but refer you to the stories in the Bible, which scholars in the latter group see as forms of prose narratives. These narratives in the Old Testament are focused mainly on individuals. The creation and the fall of man (Genesis 1-3) are centered on Adam and Eve; the first murder (Genesis 4) is on Cain and Abel, and the flood (Genesis 6-9) is on Noah. These stories contain some interesting narratives but are not full-length accounts with a systematic development of characters who engage in actions, as seen in the epic above.

The second set of narratives in the Bible is centered on individuals that engage in some actions with a beginning, middle, and an end. These include the story of Joseph (Genesis 37-46); the story of Job (Job), the story of Ruth (Ruth). These ones show the development of the characters, their growth from innocence to maturity as rounded characters, a presentation of action in chronological causal order with a beginning, middle, and an end, as we encounter in modern prose fiction. Some of the early novels tow this path, and the titles of such novels reflect the names of such characters. Hence, just like we have the books of Ruth and Job, we also have novels like Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders.

Romance

The word "roman" or "romance" in fiction dates back to some historical publications of the 11th and 12th-century southern France (Wikipedia). The central subject matter was initially derived from Roman and Greek historians and was later adapted by the Dutch and Germans in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (1380–87) is a late example of this European form of writing.

The subject matter of the early romance was based on Arthurian histories that were fashionable in the late 12th century because of their ability to glorify the northern European feudal system as an independent cultural achievement. The works of Chretien de Troyes set an example in that his plot construction subjected the northern European epic traditions to ancient Greek aesthetics. The typical Arthurian romance focuses on a single hero and leads him into a double course of episodes in which he proves both his prowess as an independent knight and his readiness to function as a perfect courtier under King Arthur. The model involved quest and adventure as basic plot elements: the quest was a mission the knight would accept as his personal task and problem; the adventure presents a situation where tests are sent by God to the knight on a journey, whose course he (the knight) would no longer try to control. This plot framework is still part of some modern Hollywood movies, which unite, separate, and reunite lovers in the course of adventures designed to prove their love and value. This plot is also found in some modern prose fiction but with some modifications.

Other popular romances with unexpected and peculiar adventures are Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (c. 1380). The two are regarded as the "cream of Middle English metrical romances...told with a unity of narrative effect, a vigorous style, and highly poetic coloring that are most unusual for the romance...Instead of the usual manifold adventures that befall the hero, there are only two, and these are made to depend one upon the other" (Woods et al 171). The two central incidents serve as tests for Gawain’s character as a Knight. One, the beheading incident, tests his physical courage and his fidelity to his words; the incident of the lady in the castle of the Green Knight questions Gawain’s chastity and moral courage. The ultimate purpose of romance is didactic.

Although romance is not categorized as modern prose fiction, it contributed to its foundation because of its presentation of stories in a chronological sequence with characters. The didactic aspect of romance is still an aspect of modern prose fiction, as the modern reader, after reading a prose fiction, "should leave...a wiser person with a deeper understanding of life" (Ezeigbo 24).

Self-Assessment Exercise.

Apart from romance, list other forms of early writings that share some characteristics with prose fiction.

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet. His tales in Decameron constitute "…the greatest achievement of prose fiction in vernacular language of southern Europe during the medieval period" (Mack 1467). The exact details of his birth are uncertain. Several sources state that he was born in Paris, with his mother being a Parisian and his father a Florentine merchant. He grew up in Florence, studied canon law, and later pursued his interest in scientific and literary studies (Mack 1468). His final years were troubled by illnesses, some relating to obesity and what is often described as dropsy, severe edema that would be described today as congestive heart failure. He died at the age of sixty-three on 21 December 1375 in Certaldo, Florence, where he was buried. Boccaccio never married but had three children.

His studies allowed him the opportunity to travel widely and make good contacts with fellow scholars. In this period, he produced Filostrato and Teseida (the source for Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and The Knight’s Tale respectively) and Filocolo, a prose version of an existing French romance, and La caccia di Diana. Boccaccio is renowned for his Decameron, which he wrote in 1352. It was Boccaccio's final effort in literature and one of his last works in Italian; the only other substantial work was Corbaccio (dated to either 1355 or 1365). Boccaccio revised and rewrote the Decameron in 1370-1371. This manuscript has survived to the present day.

Boccaccio provides a dramatic framework for his narrations in which the storytellers are seven young ladies and three gentlemen who have withdrawn from Florence to the countryside to escape the Black Death or the plague of 1384. They are refined and cultivated ladies and gentlemen who decide to tell stories to enliven their stay. Each member of the group is assigned to tell a tale each day. Sometimes, a general topic is assigned to the storyteller, but at other times, the narrator "…follows his own taste and judgment" (Woods et al. 52).

Boccaccio’s contribution to prose fiction is his dialogue, which scholars believe surpasses others in verisimilitude. In his hundred stories contained in Decameron, he presents a great variety of people and situations, "...aptly and often acutely characterized, and abundant dialogue of great liveliness and realism more than that of virtually all of his contemporaries" (Consoli 52). Some of the tales include the story about Brother Alberto and his impersonation of Angel Gabriel, and the story of Federigo and the Falcon. Boccaccio presents these tales in such graphic description that the reader is made to see successive scenes in vivid details. He creates memorable and amusing characters and relates the incidents of the narrative closely to the personalities of those characters. These are fundamental attributes of contemporary prose fiction.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) was born in London. He was an author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier, and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his The Canterbury Tales. He is sometimes called the father of English Literature and is regarded as the greatest Middle English writer. Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language rather than French or Latin, which were the popular languages then.

His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker. Chaucer had a successful career as a writer, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career, though not much is known about his early life and education. The recorded part of his life was that of officialdom: he worked as a diplomatic agent, the Comptroller of the Customs, a superintendent of the king’s works, and also a Member of Parliament for Kent in 1386. He is thought to have started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s.

Chaucer traveled to Picardy the next year as part of a military expedition, and visited Genoa and Florence in 1373. It is speculated that, on this Italian trip, he came in contact with Petrarch and Boccaccio. They introduced him to medieval Italian poetry that influenced his writings, especially in the forms and stories. In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy/secret dispatch to the Visconti and to Sir John Hawkwood, an English mercenary leader in Milan. It is believed that the character of the knight in the Canterbury Tales was based on the person of Hawkwood, whose description matches that of a fourteenth-century condottiere (Woods et al, 92).

Demise:

 He is believed to have died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400, but there is no firm evidence for this date, as it comes from the engraving on his tomb, erected more than one hundred years after his death. There is some speculation—most recently in Terry Jones’ book Who Murdered Chaucer?: A Medieval Mystery—that he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the orders of his successor Henry IV, but the case is entirely circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, as was his right owing to his status as a tenant of the Abbey's close. In 1556, his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making Chaucer the first writer interred in the area now known as Poets’ Corner.

Literary Career: 

Chaucer's literary works fall conveniently into three periods named according to the different literary influences discernable in his work: the French period, from his beginnings to 1370; the Italian period, from 1370-1385; and the English period, from 1385-1400. His first major work, The Book of the Duchess, an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster (who died in 1369), was written in the French period.

He wrote most of his lyrics and some allegorical romances during this period too. "All these early works follow models laid down by earlier contemporary writers. To some extent, the works of the Italian period are works inspired by the earlier writings of Italian authors or by the atmosphere of fourteenth-century Italian culture with which he became acquainted during his trips to Italy" (Woods et al 105). Chaucer’s original ingenuity started emerging in the works of the Italian period. Some of his works include:

- The Parliament of Fowls is a charming satire, on the model of an animal story, of parliament and of the representation of people.

- The House of Fame, although incomplete, is a more trenchant satire upon gossips, reputations, and rewards for "merit."

- The Legend of Good Women is a collection of short biographies in verse of famous heroines of antiquity, quite in the medieval tradition, which saw in the lives of great men and women models for conduct or a terrible example to shun. The work was like a mirror of life held up for all in positions of responsibility to see.

- Troilus and Criseyde, a long narrative poem in the manner of medieval romance, on a story from the medieval Troy legend. Some scholars refer to it as the first psychological novel in English literature because of its insight into human motives and its masterly characterizations; the suave and worldly go-between Pandarus and the enigmatic Cressida are remarkable portraits for the medieval period when the analysis of a human soul for more than didactic purposes was virtually unknown. Troilus and Criseyde is historically interesting also because it happens to be the finest of all the treatments of the Troy legend in Middle English literature. It is regarded as the finest work of Chaucer’s Italian period. His major works made up from a collection of stories may have been compiled over a long period.

- Others are: The Romaunt of the Rose, The Book of the Duchess, Anelida and Arcite, Treatise on the Astroble, and many more.

Chaucer is remembered most as the author of The Canterbury Tales, which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury. These tales are believed to have contributed immensely to the shaping of English literature.

Characterization: 

The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period because of the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell, and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators. Some scholars attribute this to the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary keeper of an inn in Southwark. Scholars have suggested real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man of Law, and the Student. The many jobs that Chaucer held in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman, and administrator—probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirize their manners.

The Canterbury Tales stands as the supreme monument to Chaucer. The array of characters in the prologue to this "varied collection of stories both popular and artistic would have been sufficient to assure the author a high place, and the sweep and versatility of the stories themselves are a further tribute to his genius" (Woods et al 104). Except for Piers Plowman, no other work of the Middle English period shows the same awareness of the social scene. However, The Canterbury Tales surpasses its rival in "poise, colour, ordered art, and humour" (Skeat 54). It has universal appeal and transcends its age.

Contributions to the Development of Prose Fiction: Chaucer is both a child of his age and the herald of Renaissance English literature. Although his works are regarded as poetry by many, his treatment of issues of human concern, the chronological arrangement of incidents, effective and efficient deployment of characters, and vivid, realistic presentation of incidents and events in his works qualify him to be classified as one of the originators of modern prose fiction. His knowledge is limited to his age and devotion to the church, but "...his power to transcend his own era lies in his cool appraising humour, his facility of descriptive phrase, his vigorous narrative, his remarkable receptivity to the workings of human nature, and his consequent appeal to the humanity of the ages marks him out as the greatest" (Whiteman 8).

Language: 

Apart from irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary in Chaucer’s works is recognizable to the modern reader. Chaucer is also recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as the first author to use many common English words in his writings. These words were probably frequently used in the language at the time, but Chaucer, with his ear for common speech, is the earliest manuscript source. Acceptable, alkali, altercation, amble, angrily, annex, annoyance, approaching, arbitration, armless, army, arrogant, arsenic, arc, artillery, and aspect are just some of the many English words first attested in Chaucer (Internet). These words are still in use and have influenced the diction of prose fiction over the years.

Self-Assessment Exercise:

List four reasons why the Canterbury Tales is regarded as the forerunner of modern prose fiction.

3.7 Thomas Malory

His Life: Not much is known about the life of Thomas Malory. He was involved in the distressing wars of fifteenth-century England known as the Wars of the Roses. In 1445, he was a member of parliament and in 1451, he raided a monastery that occupied the land which was formerly in his possession but was taken from him by a prelate of an opposing group during the civil strife. He tried to recover a property that he presumed was rightfully his but was arrested, charged with crimes of extortion, robbery, and rape, and sent to prison. He spent the last twenty years of his life in prison after he had been convicted of these multiple crimes that may have been trumped-up charges.

Contributions:

 His major contribution to the development of prose fiction is his compilation and arrangement of the various cycles of Arthurian legend, "Knight, Prest, and Commoner" lumped together under the title of Morte d'Arthur. The work was completed while the author was in prison. He made use of French versions of the Arthurian stories, condensed them, and rewrote them in a unified form by revolving them around the central figure of King Arthur himself (Woods et al. 105). It seemed as if he was aware of the extinction of knighthood and did his best to immortalize chivalry in the story.

In this book, Morte d'Arthur, he presented what is regarded as the best Arthurian legend that has been composed in English. His sources were, in the main, the extant medieval romances about Arthur and his group, particularly the huge French poems about Lancelot, the Grail, and Tristram. However, he condensed, expanded, or modified the original material to suit his purpose. The result is a tale that is told in a simple, almost informal style. His simplicity is artful as he presents the pomp and ceremony of a knightly career, all the splendor of the knight's high quests, and all the pathos of their falls vividly. The reader of the last book in the collection gets a feel of the disintegration and passing of the old order, the breaking of a great social system.

Self-Assessment Exercise:

Explain Thomas Malory’s major contribution to the development of prose fiction.

4.0 CONCLUSION

It is difficult to trace the origin of prose fiction, but the works of some early writers influenced the genre the way it is conceived of in modern literature. These writers set out to write poetry, which was the oldest form of literature, but the style of presentation of their stories and the portrayal of characters made their works very close to prose fiction. This justifies the tracing of the origin of prose fiction to their writings. The works in reference are fictitious and are prosaic.

5.0 SUMMARY

We have tried to discuss the contributions of some medieval writers to the evolution of prose fiction as a literary genre. Unlike Western drama whose origin is traced to the Dionysian festival in Greece, prose fiction cannot be said to be a product of a particular event or an invention of one person or country. However, we have tried to link prose fiction with the Medieval romance.

REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Consoli, J. P. (1992).Giovanni Boccaccio: an Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland.

Hopper, F.V. (1970). Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear

Translation.London: Barron's Educational Series

Skeat, W.W. (1889). The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Speirs, J.(1951).Chaucer the Maker. London: Faber and Faber.

Woods, George B, Home A. Watt &Geroge K. Anderson (1936).The Literature of England

Vol 1: From the Beginnings to the Romantic Movement. Chicago: Scott, Foresman.