Types of Prose Narratives: A Text-Book for the Story WriterFansler, Harriott Ely
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Types of Prose Narratives: A Text-Book for the Story Writer
Fansler, Harriott Ely
English prose literature; Storytelling
This work necessarily, however, was addressed to the parent. A tiny
cyclopedia of story, song, game, and theory, it is great pedagogy,
and in the original, at least, acceptable literature. The object of
all teaching-narratives should be that which Froebel expresses in his
comment on one of his own little games taught in a dialogue between a
mother and her son. You recall that his double purpose is to teach the
mother what and how to teach the child. He says, "The deep import of
The Light-Bird is hinted in the song and motto. Beware, however, of the
only one contained in the play. Not only The Light-Bird but all the
plays which precede and follow it have many meanings. Neither must it
be supposed that the meaning suggested by me is, if not the sole, at
least the highest one. My songs, mottoes, and commentaries are offered
simply with the hope that they may aid you to recognize and hold fast
some part of what you yourself feel while playing these games and to
suggest to you how you may awaken corresponding feelings in your child."
If you want to write a pedagogical narrative that will startle the
world, adopt the motto of Froebel, the charm of Ascham and Walton, the
graciousness of Castiglione, and the hard common sense of Pestalozzi,
and then proceed. But hold! You will need to have something to teach.
Perhaps you would better not try romance as a vehicle, but would better
stick to our briefer types. Suppose you put into narrative form, as
others have done since the days of the great kindergartner, a simple
game for children, or your favorite and most helpful method of study.
=Gertrude's Method of Instruction=
It was quite early in the morning when Arner (the people's father),
Glulhi (his lieutenant), and the pastor went to the mason's cottage.
The room was not in order when they entered, for the family had just
finished breakfast, and the dirty plates and spoons still lay upon
the table. Gertrude was at first somewhat disconcerted, but the
visitors reassured her, saying kindly: "This is as it should be; it is
impossible to clear the table before breakfast is eaten!"
The children all helped wash the dishes, and then seated themselves in
their customary places before their work. The gentlemen begged Gertrude
to let everything go on as usual, and after the first half hour, during
which she was a little embarrassed, all proceeded as if no stranger
were present. First the children sang their morning hymns, and then
Gertrude read a chapter of the Bible aloud, which they repeated after
her while they were spinning, rehearsing the most instructive passages
until they knew them by heart. In the mean time, the oldest girl had
been making the children's beds in the adjoining room, and the visitors
noticed through the open door that she silently repeated what the
others were reciting. When this task was completed, she went into the
garden and returned with vegetables for dinner, which she cleaned while
repeating Bible-verses with the rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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