Upload
abraham-watson
View
239
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Introduction to
Instructor: Angela Bailey
Medieval Period1066-1485
The Norman Conquest of England
Stand-still in English literature
Medieval HierarchyFeudal system:Nobility: barons, knightsFreemen: emerging middle class
(merchants, guildsmen)Peasants or serfs
Clergy
The Roman Catholic Church
(people shared a common faith)
Pope, archbishops, bishops,
priests, nuns, and monks.
Medieval Hierarchy (cont)
Saint Thomas à BecketArchbishop of Canterbury
Feud with Henry II
“Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”
Miracles that led to a great pilgrimage to Canterbury
Pilgrimage to CanterburyPilgrimage:
a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion
Canterbury: a city in E Kent, in SE England: cathedral; early ecclesiastical center of England.
Geoffrey ChaucerC. 1343-1400Known as “the
father of English literature”
Middle classVassal to the kingStarted a “re-
birth” of English literature
Geoffrey ChaucerBorn in the reign of Edward III
his work has a quality of universality that is only matched and exceeded by Shakespeare
Chose to write in the Mercian dialect (not French of the court or Latin of the university & church). This dialect became the English dialect spoken today.
Father was a successful wine merchant (the middle class was new)
Geoffrey ChaucerBorn a commoner, but through his intellect and
astute judgments of human character, he moved freely among the aristocracy, so he knew the world from many aspects.
He became a court page at 12 and read romances to the ladies at court; married a lady-in-waiting to the queen
Took part in at least two military campaigns
Court poet of the later Middle Ages in Western Europe
Geoffrey ChaucerHe traveled widely, was a substantial citizen,
well-educated, widely read.
He was a diplomat in Italy. Met or read forerunners of the Italian Renaissance (Dante, Petrach, Boccaccio) and spoke French, Italian, Latin fluently.
He held many public offices; throughout his public life he came into contact with most of the important men of London as well as with many of the great men of the continent
Geoffrey ChaucerHis work did not
reach people through printed books but was recited and circulated in manuscript copies
He was the first poet buried in Westminster Abbey
Literary DevicesFrame tale: Narrative technique whereby
a main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story.
RomanceStories of adventure about knights
and chivalry
Courtly love:Celebrates the love of a knight, usually
for a married woman. Thus, it is often adulterous and secretive.
Knights are so madly in love with these women that it consumes their thoughts.
Knights try to do many great deeds in hopes of winning their love.
FabliauxAudience: middle class men
Risqué tales that usually satirize women and clergy
Lots of obscenity; people act like animals as opposed to chivalric romancejealous husband who loses sexual
possession of his wife wife who outsmarts her husbandcorrupt members of the church
Heroic Couplet
Pioneered by Chaucer
Poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines
Characterization
the act of describing the character or qualities of someone or something
the way a writer makes a person in a story, book, play, movie, or television show seem like a real person
The PrologueThe story begins in April.
Set up: a group of people from all walks of Medieval life are setting out on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
The travelers have stopped at a tavern outside of London.
There is a challenge set out on who can tell the best story along the journey.
Meet the Pilgrims:
The Wife of Bath The Knight
The Miller
The Summoner
The Shipman
The Monk
The Prioress The Yeoman
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
• Frame story