Old to Middle

1
Old to Middle

• Change in literature in the Middle Ages

2
Modern Humor

• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report
• Leno
• Letterman
• Why the popularity? Why a lack of respect for our
  leadership/institutions?

3
Middle Ages Review

• Class structures
• Religious Institutions and Government go hand in
  hand
• Literature used to reinforce/educate regarding
  class and religion
• Legends used to create unity/hope

4
The Plague

• 1348 moves through Italy and the rest of Europe
• Death is commonplace
• No social class is left untouched
• What effects would this have on society?

5
Changes in Literature

• Popularity of the Fabliau
• It is a story that typically mocks the upper
  classes (including clergy)
• Humorous tales of trickery, pranks and revenge
• Elements of bawdy language and actions
• Modern examples?

6
Chaucer

• Born in early 1340s
• Lifetime of public service (everything from
  soldier to customs official)
• His career allowed him to travel throughout
  Europe
• Well-published and recognized in his lifetime

7
Canterbury Tales

• Begun in _at_ 1380
• It centers around a group of pilgrims traveling
  to Canterbury.
• Each pilgrim is to tell a tale, both on the way
  there and back, as a contest.
• The tales range in style from mock epics to
  fabliau's, some aimed at society, some at each
  other.

8
Canterbury Tales 2

• Chaucer popularizes the literary institutions
  of English literature for ages to come
• Iambic Pentameter five pairs (an iambic foot)
  of alternating unstressed/stressed syllables
• Couplets paired lines with end-rhymes

9
To Begin

• When April with his showers sweet with fruit
• The drought of March has pierced unto the
  root
• And bathed each vein with liquor that has
  power
• To generate therein and sire the flower

10
Ye Old Homework

• Read the prologue
• A frame story is a tale told within the frame of
  another tale.
• What is the frame of this tale? Give the Ws/How
  of this frame on a piece of notebook paper.