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Literatura Inglesa I, Middle English Period

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THE MIDDLE AGES

Collapse Roman Empire (5th century)
1. 2. 3.

Evolution of English

Anglo-Saxon Period (410 – 1066) ……………………………. Old English Anglo-Norman period (1066 – 1200) ……………………… Middle English Period (1200-1485) transition

……………………. Middle English

Renaissance & Reformation (16th century) …..…………………..Modern EnglishINTRODUCTION TO THE PERIOD (1066-1485)

1066: Battle of Hastings (Norman conquest; William I the Conqueror) 1200: Beginning of Middle English Literature 1337-1453: The Hundred Years War btw France & England 1348-9: Black Death 1362: English = language of national law 1381: Peasants’ Revolt 15th c: Wars of the Roses

- Socio-political changes • Development of feudalism: o clergy o warrior-aristocracyo labourers Gradual social mobility Birth of middle-class Growth of cities (London = around 40,000 inhabitants c. 1370; capital) Increase in foreign trade Gradual evolution of Parliament 1st Parliament = 1265 BUT, daily life: famine, war, pestilence and death

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Prof. Dr. Pilar Villar Argáiz

Literatura Inglesa I, Middle English Period

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- Growth of national identity;European influences • • Printing (Guttenberg, 15th c. in Germany) Commercial book-making enterprises England (William Caxton) Dante; Francis

Influence of European literature (France & Italy) Petrarch; Giovanni Boccaccio

(From Andrew Sanders’s The Short Oxford History of English Literature. 2nd Edition. Oxford: O.U.P., 2000, p. 31)

“the Conquest effectively eliminated upper-class patronage of OldEnglish secular poetry and prose and gradually supplanted it with a new literary culture, responsive to wider influences, international in outlook, and truly European in its authority”

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Change in status of English National aspirations of English writers “purely English tradition”

“... considered in its bulk, Middle English literature is a popular literature. Its origin in the ordersof society below the top provides its most striking contrast with Old English literature: most of the latter seems to be uttered by a single aristocratic voice, grave, decorous, responsible, speaking in terms of high communal aspirations. Middle English literature, on the other hand, is uttered by a medley of different voices, dealing with a wide range of topics in a great diversity of styles andtones and genres”.
(From the Introduction to “The Middle English Period” in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. I. 5th edition, New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co. 1986. p. 6)

• Sense of national, historical & mythical identity awareness of uniquely English literature • Myth? King Arthur = symbol of English Hª • Importance of historical writing

Result = late 14th century,The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (history of England 600 – 1154) Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain (early 12th c.) Lyamon: Brut (late 12th c.)
Prof. Dr. Pilar Villar Argáiz

Literatura Inglesa I, Middle English Period

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- Literary Genres a) Secular Poetry Romance

“Both the poet of Beowulf and the creators of the Arthurian saga dealt with legendary materials which theythought of as history. The latter’s treatment, however, is different from (and far less impressive than) the epic mode of Beowulf: it moves toward the genre, so characteristic of the later Middle Ages, known as “romance”. The romance has certain typical features: it generally concerns knights and involves a large amount of fighting as well as a number of miscellaneous adventures; it makes liberaluse of the improbable, often of the supernatural; it is often – though not always – involved with romantic love; characterization is standardized, so that heroes, heroines, and wicked stewards could easily move from one romance to another without causing any disturbance in the narrative; the plots generally consist of a great number of events, and the same event is apt to occur several times...