Types of Fiction

Realistic Fiction- fiction stories which takes place in modern times.

Mystery/ Suspense Fiction- fictional stories, unasually realistic, about a mysterious event which is not explained or a crime that is not solved until the end of the  story to keep the reader in suspense.

Fantasy Fiction- fiction that contains elements that are not realistic, suchas talking animals, magical powers ect.

Science Fiction- stories which include futuristic technology; a blend of scientific fact and fictional element.

Historic Fiction- stories which takes place in a particular time period in the past. often the basic settings is real, but the characters are fictional.

Folk Tales- taal tales and fairy tales- folk tales are stories with no known creator.

Myths- stories that usually explain something about the world and involves; gods, and other supernatural beings.

Poetry- is a verse written to create a response of thought and feeling from the reader.

Brief Biography of Roger Mais

Roger Mais was born on 11 August 1905 in Kingston, Jamaican middle-class family and came to maturity in the 1930s. Mais had not only the artistic gift but made the decision to develop that gift into a life of letters was, at the time he began writing, still unusual for a West Indian, let alone a brown, middle-class man. It involved him in learning about the black underclass with the kind of innocent but informed creative attention that made it possible to report back accurately in the three novels that were published toward the sudden end of his short life (he died of cancer at age forty-nine). It also involved him in the kind of political commitment and cultural reorientation that not only inform the novels but caused him literally to change sides during the workers' antihardship and anticolonial uprisings of 1938, when, in the middle of his going to enlist as an antiriot special constable, he joined the freedom fighters instead. During this short period of his life he wrote many a master piece of literary work incliding the very provocotive 'BROTHERMAN'.

What The Critics Say About Brotherman;

Rastaman vibration by Annie Paul Brotherman by Roger Mais (Macmillan Caribbean, ISBN1-4050-6296-7, 184 pp) states it’s interesting to read the audacious novel today, when Rastas and things Rastafarian have acquired such cultural charisma that their image, carried abroad by stars such as Bob Marley and other dreadlocked musicians, is now routinely used to advertise Jamaica as a tourist destination. Brother Man — recently reissued by Macmillan (the original publishers of many of Mais’s books) to mark its 50th anniversary — was the first Jamaican novel to portray a Rastafarian protagonist in positive terms. Writing in the early 1950s, a mere 50 years ago, Roger Mais captured the way Rastas were viewed then.

Religious Aspects in Regards to Rastafarianism

The Rastafari movement is a "messianic religio-political movement" one that began in the Jamaican slums in the 1920s and 30s. The most famous Rastafari is Bob Marley, whose reggae music gained the Jamaican movement international recognition. There is significant variation within the Rastafari movement and no formal organization. Some Rastafarians see Rasta more as a way of life than a religion. But uniting the diverse movement is belief in the divinity and/or messiahship of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, the influence of Jamaican culture, resistance of oppression, and pride in African heritage. The Rastafarian lifestyle usually includes ritual use of marijuana, avoidance of alcohol, the wearing of one's hair in dreadlocks, and vegetarianism.

Fast Facts

Date founded:

Generally said to be November 2, 1930, the year Emperor Hailie Selassie I (1892-1975) was crowned, but based in a movement of the 1920s.

Place founded:

Jamaica

Founder:

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), a black Jamaican who taught in the 1920s and is considered a second John the Baptist.

Adherents:

About 1 million worldwide

Generally the religion is viewed in todays society of one of inaccuracy in terms of who they worship (not seen as a real religion who  worships god) and is also seen as portrayers of the usesage of illegal drugs. They are the back bone of the saying 'Peace and Love' and believes the world is only going to change through this means.

Forms of Prose Fiction

Novel- anovel is a long fiction almost always concentrated character and incedent and usually contains a plot.

Novellas- the word is applied to a story some what longer than a short story but not long enough to be considered a novel.

Short stories- it is a short prose fiction which oncentrates on the few characters or often one single character whichy lacks a complicated plot and leisurely discription

Literary Context

Social- living together in grouos.

Political- relating to the state or its government.

Historical- rom the past, connected to the past.

Religious- observant to religious laws and practises.

Ethnic- different racial or social groups; of people from differnt countries.

Moral- conforming to accepted standards; having integrity.

Intellectual- rational; highly intelligent, devoted to mental or interlectual pursuits.

Cultural- refers to the patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that gives such activity significant impartance.

Structural Devices

Stream of Consciousness- a common narrative technique in modern novel (attempt to  convey all the contents of a characters mind ect. feelings, mind, thought).

Interial Monologue- an attempt to convey in words, the process of conciusness or thougt (as a meas of narrating a story).

Flashback- a trm borrowed from films. A sudden jump in time to an episode or scene in a story, play or film.

Foreshadowing- the use of hints that suggest that things to come.

Time Frame- a given interval especially in relation to a particular event or process.

Motif- some aspect of literature(a type of character, theme, image)which reoccures frequently.

Juxtaposition- to put side to side or close together.