Roger Mais Biography.

In Kingston Jamaica on August 11^th, 1905, Roger Mais was born. He was a journalist, playwright, novelist and a poet. He also wrote several plays, reviews and short stories for the newspaper Focus and the Jamaica Daily Gleaner, focusing his articles on social injustice and inequality.

Being raised into a middle-class family with full access to cultured traditions, Mais often incorporated a romantic idea into his writing. He drew from his Western education inspirations that lead to his use of tragic, visionary and poetic elements with books and plays. His belief in individualism and the writer’s freedom to pursue imagination are reflected in many of his early works. Mais had won ten first prizes in West Indian literature competitions. His integral role in the development of political and cultural nationalism is evidenced in his being awarded the high honor of the Order of Jamaica in 1978. Mais launched his career as a journalist and contributor for the weekly newspaper, Public Opinion from 1939 to 1952. He used this approach to reach his local audience and to primarily push for a national identity and anti-colonialism.

Unfortunately for Roger Mais, he died at somewhat a young age of 49 years from cancer.

Literature Definitions.

Forms of Prose Fiction

• ·         Novel – A novel is a long narrative in literature prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella..
• ·         Novella – (also called a short story) is a write, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel.
• ·         Short Story – Is a work of fiction that is usually in prose, often in the narrative format.

Elements of Prose

• ·         Narrative Techniques – The method involved in telling a story.
• ·         Point of View – Refers to the way in which a narrative approaches his/her material (characters, action, setting, ex.) and the audience.
• ·         Characters – The way in which a writer creates characters in a narrative so as to attract or repel our sympathy.
• ·         Settings – The time or place in which a play takes place.
• ·         Theme – A theme is the main idea, or message, of an essay, paragraph, or a book. The message may be about life, society, or human nature.
• ·         Plot - The plan of a literary work, especially of drama and novels.
• ·         Style – The characteristics manner in which a writer expresses him/herself or the particular manner of an individual literary work.
• ·         Imagery – Is used in literature to refer to descriptions, languages that evokes scenery experiences.
• ·         Symbol – A symbol is something which represents something else, often an idea or quality, by analogy or association.
• ·         Irony – A manner of speaking or writing that is dispersed through all kinds of literature, irony consists of saying one thing while you mean the other.
• ·         Satire – Literature which inhibits or examines vice and folly and makes them appear ridiculous or contemptible.
• ·         Allusion – A figure of speech that makes a reference to or representation of a place event, literary work, myth of, work of art either directly or by implication.

Structural Devices

• ·         Stream of Consciousness – The attempts to convey all the contents of a characters mind, memory, sense perception, feeling, intuition, thoughts. In relation to the stream of experience as it passes by, often at random.
• ·         Interior Monologue – An attempt to convey in words the process of consciousness or thought has a mean of narrating a story.
• ·         Flashback – A sudden jump backwards in time to an earlier episode or scene in a story of a novel, play or film.
• ·         Fore Shadowing – The technique of suggesting or prefiguring a development in a literary work before it occurs.
• ·         Time Frame – A given interval of time especially in relation to a particular event or process.
• ·         Motif – A significant word, description, idea or image that is repeated throughout a literary work and is related to its theme.
• ·         Monologue – A passage of writing, presenting a character’s inner thoughts and emotions in a direct, sometime disjointed or fragmentary manner.
• ·         Juxta Position – An act or instance of placing close together or side by side especially for comparison or contrast.

Literature Contents

• ·         Social- Of or having to do with human beings living together, as a group in a situation in which their dealing with one another affect their common welfare.
• ·         Political – Of or concerned with government, the statement of politics.
• ·         Religious – Characterized by adherence to religious or a religion, devout, pious, gladly.
• ·         Ethnic -Referring to the origin, classification, characteristics, etc., of such groups.
• ·         Moral - Is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event.
• ·         Intellectual - A person who uses intelligence (thought and reason) and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity. 
• ·         Cultural - An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning.