3rd Year Medieval and Renaissance Literature

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3rd YearMedieval and Renaissance Literature

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Introducing English Literature

• When did "English Literature" begin?
• The very concept of English literature a
  construction of literary history, a concept that
  has changed over time.
• Caedmon's Hymn, the earliest English poem to
  survive as a text, belongs to the latter part of
  the 7th century.
• The morality play, Everyman, is dated "after
  1485" and probably belongs to early 16th century.
• For the Middle Ages - no central movement or
  event such as the English Reformation, the Civil
  War, or the Restoration to organize a historical
  approach to the period.

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Introducing English Literature

• The literary culture of the Middle Ages was far
  more international than national
• It was divided more by lines of class and
  audience than by language.
• Latin was the language of the Church and of
  learning.
• After the 11th century, French became the
  dominant language of secular European literary
  culture.

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Early English Literature Themes

• Particular attention is given in Medieval
  literature to religious orders and to the ascetic
  ideals.
• When a text is geared toward a particular class
  of people, it is said to be written ad status,
  Latin for "to the estate."
• The "First Estate" was the Church. The "Second
  Estate" was the Nobility.The "Third Estate" was
  the Peasantry.
• The 10th century Benedictine monk Aelfric gives
  the theory of three estates clergy, nobles, and
  commoners working harmoniously together.
• These "estates" are defined primarily by what one
  does (as well as by the social class one is born
  into).
• Women were also categorized according to three
  specifically "feminine estates" virgin, wife and
  widow.

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The Arthurian Cycle

• The Arthurian cycle trace how French writers in
  the 12th and 13th centuries transformed the
  legendary histories of Britain into "romance.
• The works of Chrétien de Troyes focus on the
  adventures of individual knights of the Round
  Table and how those adventures impinge upon the
  cult of chivalry.
• In romance the adventurous quest is often
  entangled with personal fulfillment of love for a
  lady achieving her love, protecting her honor.
• In the 13th century, clerics turned the sagas of
  Arthur and his knights especially Sir Lancelot
  into immensely long prose romances.

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Conclusions

• Chaucer and his contemporaries are heirs to
  classical and medieval cultures that had been
  evolving for many centuries.
• There is a tendency to think of the Middle Ages
  as a single culture in which architecture, art,
  music, and liturgy join in magnificent
  expressions of a unified faith.
• This view overlooks the diversity of medieval
  cultures and the social, political, religious,
  economic, and technological changes that took
  place over this vastly long period.

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Course Assesment

• Attendance 20
• Seminar grade 30
• Final examination 50