Midterm Review Flashcards
Beowulf when?
first have of 8th century, or as late as the 11th century (the manuscript). Some scholars pitch earlier dates sometimes because of the content, and also based on when it would have been okay (relationship with foreign invaders) to represent them as models or heroes rather than villains. Poetry celebrating Germanic heroes.
Beowulf plot
Funeral Great Dynasty (Hrothgar) Problem (Grendel) Solution Arrives (Beowulf) Battle Celebration New Problem Arises (Grendel’s Mother) Battle Celebration Beowulf Returns Home [skips 50 years] Dragon Wakes (problem) Battle (win for Beowulf, fail for society?) Wiglaf’s speeches Funeral
Beowulf Lit devices
Form—Alliteration (A24—Appendix)
–Half-lines divided by caesura
Literary Devices
Synecdoche (A27) & Metonymy (A26)—using a word for a part to conjure up the image in the reader’s mind of the whole thing, or using one thing for something that it is associated with.
Kenning—often a compound of two words, always a poetic prorifrisus (speaking around something), a means of expressing one concept in terms of another, illustrative term (whale-road)
Variation—offer multiple names for one person, or varied terms for something that he might want to reemphasize (the ring-giver for Hrothgar to emphasize something that he does). Gives us more insight into how the author wants us to view certain characters.
Litotes (A26)—Ironic understatement. Not used as much as the others. Often used to illicit wry humor or ironic response from readers. Kind of like sarcasm.
Gnomic statements—They sound like proverbs or maxims. Expressions of value. Ex: line 20—the poet steps in and says “the young prince must be prudent like that…” Advice statements or comments about fate that are added in. Insights into Anglo-Saxon values that we can compare to our own beliefs.
SGGK Author
Anonymous Author from West Midlands, contemporary with Chaucer but writing from a very different linguistic situation. Chaucer wrote near London while this guy wrote from the West Midlands, which would have been regarded as much more provincial.
London was the center of power at the time
SGGK when?
Richard becomes king in 1377 at age 10—this poem was probably written in this decade.
SGGK Historical & LIterary Developments
English History—
1066—when William the Conqueror became king, French became a huge influence over English language and culture.
Trilanguage set up—
French: prestige language, also language of courtly poetry
Latin: language of learning (even the bible was available only in Latin)
English: the vernacular
Manuscript culture—different people copied them, so there are a lot of different versions, sometimes with different marginal notes/commentary.
Great move for Chaucer and others to write in English because it would reach more people in the vernacular.
SGGK genre
Romance Genre (genre of chivalry and knightly exploits)
Knightly virtues allow you to succeed in battle or in love
Romance focuses on the ideal and the magical things that are possible in this ideal world that is created for the romance.
Romances can be used for political or didactic commentary. Can point out how ridiculous the world is, or how wonderful it could be if the virtues were embraced.
Arthurian Knight as Ideals
Likely that chivalric literature was written to influence the way people behaved rather than as a historical record of things that actually happened
Chaucer Lit Devices
o Sentence and solaas
• Sentence= something instructional/educational
• Solaas= something enjoyable and comforting
• The challenge is for the storytellers to tell a story that brings in both of these elements
o Connection between tale and teller
Chaucer Historical Developments
• Upheavals during Chaucer’s time
o The black plague—usually the working/lower class was hit by this…. Led to the Peasants’ Revolt—peasants trying to rise up and demand attention. Because so many laborers had died of the plague, laborers could try to negotiate for better wages or move around the country to try to get better positions. This revolt was ultimately unsuccessful, but very violent. Settled peacefully after the killing of the archbishop by Richard II.
o New developing businesses (the Merchant Class)
• Unlikely that all of these people would be together in real life, so this was a convenient way to pull them all together
• This pilgrimage is to Canterbury Cathedral—the site of the death of Thomas a Beckett
• Some are there for religious reasons, others are there for a holiday
• A mode of Social Critique (often depicted through irony)
o The Monk, p. 247-48—He has all of these things that a monk shouldn’t have (material goods, non-religious love, etc), but the author praises him for being an amazing monk. Perhaps he is challenging us to rethink the image he is giving u
NPT Major Characters
Chanticleer - The heroic rooster of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Chanticleer has seven hen-wives and is the most handsome cock in the barnyard. One day, he has a prophetic dream of a fox that will carry him away. Chanticleer is also a bit vain about his clear and accurate crowing voice, and he unwittingly allows a fox to flatter him out of his liberty.
Pertelote - Chanticleer’s favorite wife in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. She is his equal in looks, manners, and talent. When Chanticleer dreams of the fox, he awakens her in the middle of the night, begging for an interpretation, but Pertelote will have none of it, calling him foolish. When the fox takes him away, she mourns him in classical Greek fashion, burning herself and wailing.
The Fox - The orange fox, interpreted by some as an allegorical figure for the devil, catches Chanticleer the rooster through flattery. Eventually, Chanticleer outwits the fox by encouraging him to boast of his deceit to his pursuers. When the fox opens his mouth, Chanticleer escapes.
Chaucer genre
Pilgrimage/Tale-Telling Contest (p. 262, l. 790ff) as…
• A literary device
• An instructive mode
o Governed on entertainment and some kind of lesson. Theoretically, we should be able to learn something from each pilgrim.
• A way to exhibit each pilgrim’s psychology
o How does this tale fit this teller? What might this figure be concerned about in their life that come out in the tale?
• Tale telling contest binds all of the pilgrims in the company into one group, builds a community among them, a microcosm of medieval society as a whole.
o The upper classes—the knight
o The head of a convent
o A monk
o Laborers (plowman)
o Women
o Members of the emerging middle class
• Genre—Beast Fable
o Animals with human qualities
o The Fox as a trickster
o Beast Epic: Reynard the Fox (12 c. forward)
• Satirizes the clergy who are trying to use their position to prey on their flock rather than trying to properly minister to them.
o Mock Epic Elements
• Clauntecleer as a prince in his hall (366)
• Reynard as a new Judas, new Ganylon (betrayed a knight in a famous romance), new Sinon (a greek who lied to the Trojans about the Trojan horse as being safe instead of deadly) (407-8)—famous traitors
• Chaucer imitates a famous lament on the death of Richard I (527)—using it for a chicken while following a famous rhetorician.
• Not so great a cry when Carthage, Troy, or Rome fell as when Chauntecleer was taken (535)
• When the women, men, dogs, cow, hogs, etc. all shout and run as Chauntecleer is being taken into the woods (577). Everyone is freaking out.
• Comparing to Jack of Straw—the leader of the peasants uprising.
o Shows that the author may have been satirizing that what the peasants were doing was quite brutish, their efforts were useless.
o Maybe a bizarre thing that Chaucer is trying to depict—perhaps he is trying to smooth over reactions (his readers are aristocrats—showing that the peasants are not a real threat, so don’t be evil to them).
Marie vs Chaucer Fables
o Chaucer uses many elaborate, fantastic descriptions, allusions to people, events, literature, prince/Roles for all of the animals, dreams, extended form, chickens quote the bible and classical culture, representation of hierarchy, names (Marie’s don’t have this), humour, medical sciences (his fluid are imbalanced which is why Pertelote thinks he is having bad dreams), astrology, philosophers, comments on women
• What do these do for the text?
• Making the story more engaging, involving the audience more so that they will be more likely to take the lesson
• Humanizing the characters
• Subplot with Chauntecleer and his wife—giving her a character—puts things in the context of gender in that society.
o “women’s counsel… but I don’t know to whom it might displease if I were to blame women’s counsel…”
• 3 Morals at the end—605 and on
o Discourse of free will of the reader to decide what the moral of the story is and what to do with it
• Line 505—“Alas, ye lords, many a false flatterer is in your court…. That please you more by my faith than he that tells you the truth.”
• How does this edition change the tale and challenge readers to think through things??
• Why is Chaucer or the Nun’s Priest citing all of the philosophers and educated academics—shows his authority in telling such a story. Maybe Chaucer showing what he knows by piling on all of these things that the audience might not expect.
Wyatt When?
1503-1542
Spenser When?
1552-1599
Sidney When?
1554-1586
