middle english literature
TRANSCRIPT
Wendy Burgos.Diana Castiblanco.Maria Fernanda Arias.
MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE
ENGLISH LITERATURE CLASS
THE MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE
It is divided into 4 general edges:
The Early Period.The Thirteenth CenturyThe Fourteenth Century.The Fifteenth Century.
This “middle english l iterature” corresponds to the
Medieval period.
The Norman conquest of England in 1066 traditionally signifies the beginning of 200
years of the domination of French in English letters.
Old English literary contains: political, and ecclesiastical
documents.
The English that was used from 1.100 to 1.500 is called “middle
english”.
THE CONQUEST
“The Norman conquest of England in 1066 traditionally signifies the beginning of 200 years of the domination of French in English letters. French cultural dominance, moreover, was general in Europe at this time. French language and culture replaced English in polite court society and had lasting effects on English culture.”...
“After the Norman conquest of England, Law French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and society. The Norman dialects of the ruling classes mixed with the Anglo-Saxon of the people and became Anglo-Norman, and Anglo-Saxon underwent a gradual transition into Middle English.”
EDGESThe Early
PeriodThe 13th Century
The 14th Century
The 15th Century
• Poetry i s the principal form of l i terary expression.
• Several poems in early Middle Engl ish are extant and written in old Engl ish.
• Is interested on l inguistic and prosodic purposes rather than l i terary.
• Continues in the trad ition of Anglo-Saxon prose d i rected toward ord inary people rather than pol i te society.
• The romance, an important continental narrative verse form, was introduced in England.
• 13th-century works reta in elements of the Anglo-Saxon heroic trad ition.
• The latter portion of the 14th century a lso saw not only the consol idation of Engl ish as a written language and a shift to secular writing. Wil l iam Caxton printed four-fifths of his works in Engl ish, which helped to standardize the language and expand the vocabulary.
• L i terary work is most ly satiric and combines medieval and Renaissance elements.
• Moral i ty Play probably arose in part from the desire of re l ig ious writers to teach the principles of Christian.
-the medieval drama.- l i turgical plays.-mystery plays.
Haga clic en el icono para agregar una imagen
CHARACTERISTICS
The literary writings are in Old English.
Middle English requires the constant help of a glossary.
Chaucer's "The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales" has long been
recognized as one of the greatest masterpieces of English literature.
Medieval works of literature often center on the inevitability, sadness,
change, loss, and death; and the vanity of human grandeur.
The greatest poet of that time was GEOFFREY CHAUCER.
EARLY LIFE
EARLY LIFE
CHAUCER’S LITERARY WORK
• Parliament of foules• Troilus and Crisedy• The legend of good women• The canterbury tales
Growing audience
A panorama of most serious, often melancholic, diverse folk of many social classes (castle, monochrome gray, loyalty to the lord, barnyard, town)
The appearance of leasure desperate courage in defeat
Major theme: agony of the lordless man, code continued but became chivalric
Social alienation, noble and heroic deeds; agony of alienation, physical hardships for audience: almost exclusively male
Lords and the sovereign lady
CHARACTERISTICS
IN THE WRITIGS
THE CANTERBURY TALES
The Canterbury Tales is a
collection of over 20 stories written in Middle English
by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century, during the time of the Hundred Years'
War.
The canterbury tales (-california dreamin- by the mamas and the papas)
Nobody knows exactly in what order Chaucer intended to present the tales, or even if he had a specific order in mind for all of them. Eighty-two early manuscripts of the tales survive, and many of them vary considerably in the order in which they present the tales.
ORDER OF THE CANTERBURY TALES
The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle English, which bears a close visual resemblance to the English written and spoken today. In contrast, Old English (the language of Beowulf, for example) can be read only in modern translation or by students of Old English.
LANGUAGE IN THE CANTERBURY TALES
Chaucer's characters each express different—sometimes vastly different—views of reality, creating an atmosphere of relativism.
“Long ago in Ancient Greece, a great conqueror and duke named Theseus ruled the city of Athens. One day, four women kneel in front of Theseus’s horse and weep, halting his passage into the city. The eldest woman informs him that they are grieving the loss of their husbands, who were killed at the siege of the city of Thebes. Creon, the lord of Thebes, has dishonored them by refusing to bury or cremate their bodies. Enraged at the ladies’ plight, Theseus marches on Thebes, which he easily conquers. After returning the bones of their husbands to the four women for the funeral rites, Theseus discovers two wounded enemy soldiers lying on the battlefield, nearing death. Rather than kill them, he mercifully heals the Theban soldiers’ injuries, but condemns them to a life of imprisonment in an Athenian tower…”
The Knight’s Tale, Parts 1–2→Fragment 1, l ines 859–1880
OTHER LITERARY WORK
Examples:• The legends of ancient Greece and Rome.• The British legends of King Arthur • The Knights of the Round Table
http://english.unm.edu/academics/old-and-middle-english.html
https://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/scott.windeatt/assignments/Avgousti_Maria%20Iosifina/AVGOUSTI_CALL1_PROGRAMMING/page3.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English_literature
BIBLIOGRAPHY