Chapter 1&2 Early and medieval English literature

The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period The English People are of a mixed blood: Celts (the early inhabitants or the natives: Britons), Anglo-Saxons and Jutes. The Roman Conquest(55BC-5th C.) The English Conquest in the 5th C. ( three pirate tribes from Northern Europe: Anglo-Saxons, and Jutes

The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period The heathen people were Christianized in the 7th century. King Alfred the Great defeated the Danish Invasion in the 9th century. p2 Chronicle Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, founded by King Alfred the Great. p4 Beowulf, the only organic whole poem of the Anglo-Saxon period, an epic of over 3000 lines. P4

Beowulf : characters in the national epic (3183 lines) Beowulf & 14 companions fire-dragon great hall of Hrothgar Monster ， Grendel She-monster

Features of Beowulf A hybrid of fact with legend: p5 A basically pagan story with an evident Christian overlay p5 The use of kennings （ e.g. swan’s bath, whales’ road, gift-giver ）, alliteration (e.g. Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland), assonance (vowel sounds repeated in successive words ) p6(terms)kennings

Medieval / Feudal period ( ) The Norman Conquest in 1066 The establishment of the Feudal system The 1381 Peasant Uprising led by Wat Tyler, John Ball, and Jack Straw The completion of the Domesday’s book ( a tax-book, also a historical record of Anglo-Saxon institutions, customs, and way of life) The War with France or the Hundred Years’ War p7-8

Medieval literature/romance The Growth of Arthurian Legends: Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur Sir Gawain and the Green Knight p9 The Robin hood Ballads p11 John Wycliffe( ): translation of the Bible into Middle English; known as “the Morning Star of the Reformation?” William Langland (1332-end of the C): Vision of Piers the Plowman, a dream allegory of 7000 lines. p11-12

a Piers the Plowman manuscript held at Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Medieval romances The four cycles of Romances: King Arthur and his Round Table Knights Charlemagne/Charles the Great( ) and his peers Charlemagne/Charles the Great( ) Alexander the Great The Trojan War p12

What is Romance ？ ⊙ The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England ， ⊙ long composition in verse or prose ， describing the life and adventures of a noble hero ， the knight ， the central character of romances (having nothing to do with the common people), ⊙ chivalry ， the code of manners and morals of a knight

Chapter2 Geoffrey Chaucer 1340 ？ The founder of English poetry/realism; Buried in Westminster Abbey ， founding the “Poets’ Corner ”.

Geoffrey Chaucer Introduced from France the heroic couplet （ rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter) Much life spent first in France ， then not a little in Italy for Diplomatic missions, enabled him to study French literature and the poems of Dante ， Petrarch and Boccaccio (Decameron), famous Italian writers of the Renaissance period.

Chaucer’s three periods Translated From French Adapted From Italian The Canterbury Tales The Romaunt of the Rose masterpiece Troilus and Criseyde ？

Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer becomes mature in versification with Troilus and Criseyde (Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida) about 8000 lines, Chaucer’s longest complete poem ， His greatest artistic achievement Taken from a poem by Boccaccio

Chaucer’s masterpiece - The Canterbury Tales  It should be an immense work of 124 stories ， only 24 were written ， all these but two were written in verse  The tales cover all the major types of medieval literature ： courtly romance ， folk tale ， beast fable ， story of travel and adventure ， saint’s life ， allegorical tale ， and others  The personality of the host affords a clear string of connection from the first to the last tale

Chaucer’s masterpiece- The Canterbury Tales The prologue: it provides a framework for the tales ， and supplies a miniature of the English society of Chaucer‘s time ； all classes except the royalty and the poorest peasants are represented by the 30 pilgrims

Chaucer’s masterpiece- The Canterbury Tales The tales of the Knight ， the Pardoner ， the Nun’s Prioress and the Wife of Bath ， together with the Prologue ， are regarded as the best of the whole collection.

The salient features of Chaucer’s tales Sense of humor Loyalty to reality Sense of humanity

Chapter2 The Pre-Elizabethan Period The Protestant Reformation: Started by Martin Luther ( ) in Germany then by John Calvin ( )in France and Switzerland then in England because of Henry Ⅷ, who founded Tudor dynasty

Chapter2 The Pre-Elizabethan Period Humanism as a movement: The influence of the rise of the bourgeoisie in the sphere of cultural life An intellectual movement known as the Renaissance ， or the rebirth/revival of letters ． The Renaissance sprang first in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe ．

Chapter2 The Pre-Elizabethan Period Humanism as a movement: A thirsting curiosity for the classical literature (the love and study of Greek and Latin classics) was but an expression of the general dissatisfaction of the Catholic and feudal ideas ．

Chapter2 Thomas More ( ) More’s life: Born in a middle class family; became Lord chancellor of England under Henry Ⅷ ; disgusted with the plunderous measures and the corrupt life of Henry; beheaded on a false charge of treason because of his opposition to Henry’s divorce from Queen Catharine and his church policy.

Thomas More’s Utopia His masterpiece Utopia, meaning ‘no place’ /‘nowhere land’ p28 in the form of conversation/dialogue between More and Hythloday, a returned voyager Book1, a long discussion on the social conditions of England Book2, describing an ideal communist society: no one has anything yet everyone is rich. weaknesses: emphasis on uniformity, the existence of slave system, superpower politics at work, male-dominated society… p33