Authors Flashcards
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Birth
Country/City
Significance
Death
b.1564
City: London
He wrote over 150 sonnets and is regarded as the greatest Anglophone writer. A large number of familiar English sayings and expressions come from his works. He spent most of his life in London, where he managed the Globe Theatre.
d. 1616
VOLTAIRE
Dates
Significance
b. 1694
Significance: Voltaire had a considerable influence on both the French and American Revolutions, and was notable for his satirical wit in championing freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the separation of church and state.
d. 1778
DANTE
Dates
Significance
Most famous work
1265-1321
Significance: Dante was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance. Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature, writing in Italian instead of Latin. Dante has been called “the Father of the Italian language” and one of the most important writers of Western civilization.
Work: His Divine Comedy is widely considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Dates
Significance
Most famous work
1343 – 1400
Significance: Known as the Father of English literature, Chaucer’s work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
Work: The Canterbury Tales.
The Divine Comedy
Author
Dates written and published
Significance
Author: Dante (1265-1321)
Dates: written 1308-1320, published 1472
Significance: Vernacular
The Divine Comedy is widely considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature, writing in Italian instead of Latin. Dante has been called “the Father of the Italian language”
The Canterbury Tales
Author
Date of publication
Significance
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
Date: 1387
Significance: Vernacular
The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from London to Canterbury.
Known as the Father of English literature, Chaucer’s work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
HOMER
Dates
~700 BCE
HOMER
Dates
Works
Legend
~700 BCE
the Iliad and the Odyssey
“Blind Bard” from Ionia
Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of ancient Greek literature.
Many accounts of Homer’s life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a ~blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider them legends.
ODYSSEY
Date
Author
Plot
~700 BCE
The Odyssey focuses on the journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy.
THE ILIAD
Date
Author
Plot and Timeline
Two main Characters
~700 BCE
The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war.
St. THOMAS AQUINAS
Dates
Significance
St. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274
1265–1274: Summa Theologica Written
An Italian priest and influential philosopher and theologian. His teaching and writings were the bedrock of late Medieval philosophy, and sought to reconcile faith and reason by using logic to support Christian doctrine. His reliance on logic would be countered by humanists during and after the Renaissance.
His ideas remain influential today; his Summa Theologica is still used in theology and philosophy classes.
St. THOMAS AQUINAS
Major Work
Summa Theologica (Written : 1265–1274)
1225-1274
His teaching and writings were the bedrock of late Medieval philosophy, and sought to reconcile faith and reason by using logic to support Christian doctrine. His reliance on logic would be countered by humanists during and after the Renaissance.
His ideas remain influential today; his Summa Theologica is still used in theology and philosophy classes.
SUMMA THEOLOGICA
1265–1274: Written
St. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274
His teaching and writings were the bedrock of late Medieval philosophy, and sought to reconcile faith and reason by using logic to support Christian doctrine. His reliance on logic would be countered by humanists during and after the Renaissance.
His ideas remain influential today; his Summa Theologica is still used in theology and philosophy classes.
Why was the Essay invented?
Montaigne (1533-1592) created the essay, a form which allowed him to test out and examine his ideas in literary form. Montaigne was a skeptic and viewed certainty as impossible; thus he argued that tolerance of others’ viewpoints was necessary.
Montaigne’s motto was “What do I know?” and he used his essays to try and discover the answer to that question.
Essais, a collection of a large number of short subjective treatments of various topics published in 1580.
First Essays Published?
Essais, a collection of a large number of short subjective treatments of various topics published in 1580.
Montaigne (1533-1592)
