Prosimetrum: Difference between revisions
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==History== |
==History== |
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The term ''prosimetrum'' is first attested in the ''Rationes dictandi'' of |
The term ''prosimetrum'' is first attested in the ''Rationes dictandi'' of Hugh of Bologna, around 1119. Hugh divided metrical composition into three kinds: quantitative verse (''carmina''), verse based on syllable count and assonance (''rithmi''), and "the mixed form ... when a part is expressed in verse and a part in prose" (''prosimetrum'').<ref>Dronke, p. 2.</ref> |
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actes du Colloque international de la Fondation Singer-Polignac, Paris, 8-12 juin 1999'' p131</ref> |
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==Examples== |
==Examples== |
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Revision as of 23:03, 12 October 2012
A prosimetrum, plural prosimetra, is a literary composition that is made up of alternating passages of prose and verse. It is widely found in Western and Eastern literature.[1] While narrative prosimetrum may encompass at one extreme a prose story with occasional verse interspersed, and at the other, verse with occasional prose explanations, in true prosimetrum the two forms are represented in more equal measure.[2] A distinction is sometimes drawn[3] between texts in which verse is the dominant form and those in which prose dominates; there the terms prosimetrum and versiprose are applied respectively.
History
The term prosimetrum is first attested in the Rationes dictandi of Hugh of Bologna, around 1119. Hugh divided metrical composition into three kinds: quantitative verse (carmina), verse based on syllable count and assonance (rithmi), and "the mixed form ... when a part is expressed in verse and a part in prose" (prosimetrum).[4]
Examples
- Satyricon by Petronius[1]
- Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius[1]
- Cosmographia by Bernard Silvestris[1]
- Aucassin et Nicolette[1]
- La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri[1]
- Grettis saga
- The Kojiki[1]
- Izumi Shikibu Nikki[5]
- Oku no Hosomichi by Matsuo Bashō[6]
- One Thousand and One Nights[7]
- Acallam na Senórach[8]
- The Mahabharata[1]
- Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov[9]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116.
- ^ Harris & Reichl, p. 11.
- ^ Hanson, Kristin, and Paul Kiparsky. "The Nature of Verse and Its Consequences for the Mixed Form". In Harris & Reichl, p. 36.
- ^ Dronke, p. 2.
- ^ Keene, Donald. Travelers of a Hundred Ages. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. p. 36. ISBN 0-231-11437-0
- ^ Green et al., p. 1510.
- ^ Heinrichs, Wolfhart. "Prosimetrical Genres in Classical Arabic Literature". In Harris & Reichl, p. 249.
- ^ Jones, Jones, and Knight, p. 87.
- ^ Alexis, André. Beauty and Sadness. Toronto: House of Anansi, 2010. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-88784-750-9
References
- Dronke, Peter. Verse with Prose from Petronius to Dante. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-674-93475-X
- Green, Roland, et al., ed. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-691-15491-6
- Harris, Joseph, and Karl Reich, ed. Prosimetrum: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Narrative in Prose and Verse. Cambridge, Eng.: D. S. Brewer, 1997. ISBN 0-85991-475-5
- Jones, Samuel, Aled Jones, and Jennifer Dukes Knight, ed. Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 24/25, 2004 and 2005. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-03528-7
Further reading
- O’Donoghue, Heather. Skaldic Verse and the Poetics of Saga Narrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-926732-3
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