英国文学史middleages.doc

v Middle Ages
v (5th century-1485)
v Outline of literary achievements
v Beowulf
v Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales
v Historical Background in Middle Ages(beginning to 1485)
Beginning of Britain:
1. From the recorded history, Celtic first occupied England.
2. from 55-54BCto 410AD, Rome invaded Britain
Language: still Celtic
3. 449-1100, Anglo-Saxon invaded Britain
(Anglo-Saxon period) Language: Old English
4 1066-1485, the Norman Conquest（ended Anglo-Saxon period and started medieval period)

v Literary Achievement in Anglo-Saxon Period
Beowulf:
an epic of
Anglo-Saxon
2007-11-16 美国
v Beowulf
1 a heroic Scandinavian epic legend told in old English (epic: a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds)
2 time : around AD700
3 author: unknown
4 length: altogether over 3000 alliterative long lines
v Alliteration
a figure of speech in which consonants, especially at the beginning of words are repeated. It is a very old device in English verse and is common in poem ,occasionally in prose. Alliteration became rare after the end of 15th century.
v Eg: P5 Beowulf
e.g. He claps the crag with crooked hands.
Word pictures:
v Literary Achievement in Anglo-Saxon Period
5 content: Beowulf ‘s heroic deeds in Danish society
Plot overview and characters:
Grendel-- a giant monster of human shape who kills people
Grendel’s mother—also a monster who revenged after her son was killed by Beowulf
Beowulf
Danish king, a dragon
Analysis of major character: (Beowulf) faithful to his people, forgetting himself in face of death, a courageous warrior, wise ruler, a brave fighter, the product of a primitive, tribal society on the continent,
v Literary Achievement in Anglo-Saxon Period
6 religion: full of paganism (belonging to a religion which worships many gods, especially one which existed before the main world religions)多神教, heroism and fatalism and blended with Christian color
7 theme: more than a fairy story of heroes combating monsters but a recollection of the values, beliefs and longings of the Anglo-Saxon people before they came to England. (Beowulf is the incarnation of the brave and pagan Anglo-Saxons)
8 influence: It ranks itself among the classics of Odyssey by Homer(Greece) and the Aeneid by Virgil (ancient Rome).
v Literary Achievement in Middle Ages
The Canterbury Tales
v The Canterbury Tales
v Geoffrey Chaucer: “Father of poetry”, also the first important poet in British history.
His varied experience made him familiar with persons high and low in all walks of life.
v The Canterbury Tales
1. time: 1387-1400
2. structure: carefully structured, a general prologue (a framework) plus 24 tales and the separate prologue of each tale and links that accompany some of the tales.
3. Tales(P15)
First one: The Knights’ Tale
several famous tales: the Miller’s tale, The Wife of Bath, the Franklin, the Pardoner, the Nun’s Priest and the Parson
v The Canterbury Tales
4. content:
It is a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, where the famous Saint Thomas Becket was assassinated.
The narrator begins the prologue by describing the fine April day and each of the Pilgrims.
v
v The Canterbury Tales
5. Theme (Influenced by the early Italian Renaissance)
v man's right to pursue earthly happiness and opposed asceticism
v man's energy, intellect, and love of life
v to expose and satirize the social evils, esp. the religious abuses.
v reflects the reality of poet’s day(14th century.
v The Canterbury Tales
6. Characterization
--- vivid portrayal of individualized characters of the society and of all professions and social strata except the highest and the lowest
---shows respect for the two landed gentry, the plowman and the parson parson
---satirized all the religious people except the parson;
---shows a growing sense of self-importance of the trades and towns people
---reflecting the changing social status, esp. in towns and cities.
v The Canterbury Tales
7. Style
v influenced by Boccaccio’s Decameron
v the effective London dialect (lively and vivid Middle-Age English)
v satiric and humorous
v heroic couplet
v well-structured
v The Canterbury Tales -The General Prologue
v Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
v The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
v And bathed every veyne in swich licour
v Of which vertu engendred is the flour
v When in April the sweet showers fall
v And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
v The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
v As brings about the engendering of the flower,
v When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath
v Exhales an air in every grove and heath…
v The Canterbury Tales -The General Prologue
v Then people long to go on pilgrimages
v And palmers long to seek the stranger strands
v Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands,
v And specially, from every shire’s end
v Of England, down to Canterbury they wend
v To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick
v To give his help to them when they were sick,
v The Canterbury Tales -The General Prologue
v It happened in that season that one day
v In Southwark , at The Tabard, as I lay
v Ready to go on pilgrimages and start
v For Canterbury, most devout at heart,
v At night there came into that hostelry
v Some nine and twenty in a company
v Of sundry folk happening then to fall
v The Canterbury Tales -The General Prologue
v In fellowship, and they were pilgrims all
v That towards Canterbury meant to ride,
v The rooms and stables of the inn were wide;
v They made us easy, all was of the best,

v And, briefly, when the sun had gone to rest,
v I’d spoken to them all upon the trip
v And was soon one with them in fellowship,
v Pledged to rise early and to take the way
v To Canterbury, as you heard me say.
v The Canterbury Tales -The General Prologue
v But none the less, while I have time and space,
v Before my story takes a further pace,
v It seems a reasonable thing to say
v What their condition was, the full array
v Of each of them, as it appeared to me,
v According to profession and degree,
v And what apparel they were riding in;
v And at a Knight I therefore will begin.
v Two other important poets in Chaucer’s Age
v William Langland:
The Vision of Piers Plowman
v The Gawai-Poet：
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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