Beowulf

LITERATURA INGLESA I
PART 1: FROM ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD TO THE RENAISSANCE


TOPIC 1.- OLD-ENGLISH LITERATURE

- Historical background. Anglo-Saxon Literature.
- Compulsory reading: Beowulf.

a) Preliminaries: Periods of English Language and literature
b) Setting the Scene:
i. The Celts and the Romans.
ii. Germanic invasions.
iii. The Cristianisation of Britain.
c) Anglo-SaxonPoetry:
i. Introduction: The Anglo-Saxon heoric ideal and its intertwining with Christian elements.The oral tradition and the four manuscripts.Form and style in Anglo-Saxon verse.
ii. Secular poetry: Epic poetry: the earliest poems, Beowulf, late heoric poetry. Lyric poetry: the elegies. Folk poetry: Riddles, Spells / Charms.
iii. Religious poetry: Caedom´s Hymn and the Christian revolution inpoetry. The Cynewulf group and The Dream of the Rood.
d) Anglo-Saxon Prose.


PRELIMINARIES: PERIODS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

When discussing the English language, linguists usually distinguish just three periods:
- Old English: 450 – 110
- Middle English: 1100 – 1500
- Modern English: 1500 –
When discussing the periods of English literature, more than three terms are needed.The exact number, dates and names of these periods vary, although some terms and criteria of classification have established themselves as standard in Anglo- American literary criticism. The convention of periodical classification must not distract from the fact that such criteria are relative and that any attempt to relate divergent texts – with regard to their structure, contents or date ofpublication – to a single period of literature history is always problematic.
- Old English period. 450 – 1066. The invasion of Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) tribes to the French (Norman) Invasion under the kingdom of William the Conqueror. This literature is based on oral tradition. Monasteries are the main institutions that preserve culture. Not many texts have come down to us from this period.The most importat piece of those preserved is the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.
- Middle English period. 1066 – 1485. The beginning of the Tudor dynasty after a period of conflict and instability. The Norman Conquest marked a new phase in English culture and literature. For a time, Frenc replaced English as the language of literature. From the later half of this Middle English period texts fromseveral genred have been preserved. Lyric poetry, religious works such as William Langland´s Piers Plowman, romances like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Thomas Malory´s Le Morte D´Arthur, or Chaucer´s collection of stories The Canterbury Tales.
- The English Renaisance. 1485 – 1649. The English Renaissance began with the ascend of the House of Tudor to the throne. Different subsets can bedistinguished: the Elizabethan Period: Queen Elizabeth became the symbol of the Golden Age, the period of stability from 1558 to 1603. Lyrical poetry, prose and drama fluorished during this time. Important names of this period are Edmund Spenser, Philip Sydney, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Jacobean and Caroline Age, so called after King James I and his son Charles I. Religius andpolitical conflicts returned after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Literature became more sophisticated, sombre and also conscious of social abuse. This is the time of the Metaphysical and the Cavalier Poets, the satiric comedies of Ben Jonson, and the sensational tragedies og Cyril Tourneur and John Webster.

SETTING THE SCENE. THE CELTS AND THE ROMANS / GERMANIC INVASIONS / THE CHRISTIANISATIONOF ENGLAND

If we look at the geological and physical map of the British Isles, we see that the oldest rocks make the hills mountains of the west and north, and that the newest form the comaratively flat country that lies south and east of a line running from Devonshire to north Yorkshire. This has been of supreme importance in British hystory, for the low land facing the continent has always...