The prologue is a text that comes before the body of a work.
Prologue is a term that comes from the Greek language and refers to the writing preceded by the body of a work . It is, therefore, the first part of a book . For example: “Jorge Luis Borges was in charge of the prologue of the most famous book by his friend Adolfo Bioy Casares” , “The author assures in the prologue that the stories told are based on real events” , “It is rare for a Nobel Prize winner to write “the prologue to the first work of a debut writer.”
Specifically, we can delve a little deeper into the etymological origin of the term we are now analyzing. Thus, we can discover that it comes from the word prologues , which was formed by the sum of two different parts: the prefix pro -, which can be translated as "before" , and the word logos , which is synonymous with "word" .
Prologue Features
The prologue can be written by the author of the main body of the book or by another person. Although it is not an essential part of the work (in fact, there are many books without it), the prologue allows the reader to be oriented or serves for the writer to provide some details about the writing process.
When writing a prologue, it is important to keep in mind that it must have a series of characteristics that give it meaning. Specifically, many professionals in the literary and cultural field establish that it must be objective, it must serve so that the reader knows perfectly what they are going to find in the work, it must temporally and spatially locate the person who is going to read the book and it must also present the author in an exhaustive but brief manner.
There are books that lack a prologue.
A preliminary text
When the prologue is written by another author, it usually introduces the writer, characterizes his work and makes a brief criticism or review of the text . The choice of the person who will write the prologue may depend on the author himself or his publisher. It is important to keep in mind that the prologue is always written once the work is finished . When the book has several reprints or reissues, it is common for it to have more than one prologue.
The prologue is part of the preliminary texts of the work. It must be differentiated, however, from the introduction and the preface . Literary theory qualifies prologues as paratexts , since they are located on the periphery of the main text (such as the dedication or marginal notes).
"Prologue" as title
In addition to all this, we cannot forget that “Prologue” is the title of a short film made by the Spanish filmmaker Lucas Figueroa . Eight minutes is the length of time this audiovisual work lasts, which makes us consider the fact that we are not really aware that our lives can change radically in a few seconds.
In the same way, within the literary field there are various works that use that term to title themselves. This would be the case of a poem by one of the most important writers in Spanish literature. We are referring to Federico García Lorca , who in that poetry mixes love, pain, heaven and hell.