Survey 1 Flashcards
1
Q
Cultural Work
def
A
- circulation of topics, ideas, themes, or actual artworks through different realms of societies, groups and times
- closely linked to ideas of cultural memory as a dynamic exchange with the past
2
Q
Circuit of Culture
A
Stuart Hall
- consumption
- regulation
- production
- representation
- identity
3
Q
Literary History and Canonization…3questions
A
What is remembered?
(What counts as lit? Who defines what is “literary” and what is not?
Who remembers?
(Who has power over cultural past, who has access/resources?
Why is it remembered?
(Who are the stakeholders in remembering whose literary history?
4
Q
Medievialism
def
A
Lecture:
four distinct models of medieval reception:
1. The productive (subject matter. works, themes, etc)
2. The reproductive, reconstruction of original form of medieval works (as in musical productions, paintings, etc)
3. academic reception
(authors, works, events etc are investigated and interpreted)
4. political-idealogical reception
(works, themes etc used and ‘reworked for political purposes for legitimization or for debunking (e.g. when talking abt crusade there’s a clear ideology behind it)
wiki:
Medievalism is the system of belief and practice characteristic of the Middle Ages, or devotion to elements of that period, which has been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and various vehicles of popular culture
5
Q
Alfred the Great + Danelaw
A
- King of Wessex,
then Anglo-Saxons 871-899 - peace treaty with the Danes, establishement of Danelaw
- benefector of learning, laws and chronicles (the Anglo Saxon Chronicle), translations
6
Q
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
A
- Northumbria
- Mercia
- Wessex
- Wales
- Sussex
- Kent
- Essex
- …
7
Q
The Old English Language
influences, development
A
→ Indoeuropean languages → Protogermanic → West Germanic languages → Old English Other influences: Danish, Latin, French
8
Q
Poetry Chronicles
A
The Exeter Book
The Vercelli Book
authors and actual origins mostly unknown
9
Q
Old English Poetics
characteristics
A
- Alliterations
no end rhymes, but same sound in front or middle of words - kennings
metaphorical words, compounds and circumlocutions as flexible units of thought
Orality: OE poetry was must have been often spoken, memorised , changed in performance
10
Q
Alliterative Verse in OE
A
One or other | of the opening stresses |
Must alliterate with the leading syllable
in the second half-line; sometimes both do,
in triple front-rhyme, the fourth is different.
11
Q
the dream of the rood
A
Vercelli Book, 10th century
- complex poem about Jesus, the crucifixion, and the meaning of Christianity
poem combines the imaginary of the Anglo Saxons with Christian imaginary.
starts with the image of the sun rising behind a tree
“The Rood” meaning:
The rood is simultaneously a tree, a spear and the cross.
12
Q
Lit. „the wanderer“
A
in the Exeter book. 10th century.
eardstapa = wanderer
–> typical kenning
wanderer - eardstepan
realm of life - Middleearth - Middangeard
lexicon - treasure of words - wordhoard
13
Q
Bede’s
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People
A
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Latin: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum),
written by the Venerable Bede in about AD 731,
- a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between the pre-Schism Roman Rite and Celtic Christianity. It was originally composed in Latin, is considered to be one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history and has played a key role in the development of an English national identity. It is believed to have been completed in 731 when Bede was approximately 59 years old.
14
Q
Society in Middle Ages
A
- small kingdoms
- “war-lords”
- agricultural
- tribal structures
- germanic and early Christian values: Kings start to convert in 7th century
15
Q
the futhorc alphabet
A
Anglo-Saxon runes.
After the 9th century, they were gradually supplanted in Anglo-Saxon England by the Old English Latin alphabets introduced by Irish missionaries. Runes were no longer in common use by the year 1000 and were banned under Cnut the Great (r. 1016–1036).
16
Q
Epic
Definition, Development, Examples
A
A long narrative poem,
- typically one derived of ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation.
Epics…
- express the values of a society
- transcendent into the mythical
- heroic journey a blueprint of everybody’s struggle
- narrative: universal form of the expression of knowledge
- retain old narrative traditions (Greek, Norse, etc.) but update them to form new epic stories
Homer (Greek lit) or Virgil (Latin) used blanc verse.
During Restoration heroic couplets, Dryden defends them.
John Milton denounced them and does not include them in his famous epic ‘Paradise Lost’ bc sees them as hindrance (connects to monarchy)
17
Q
Beowulf
Epic elements in Beowulf
A
stand-alone epic poem. echoes the Saga of Icelander’s
Hrothgar: an actual 6th-century Danish King.
long poem: 3.129 alliterative verses.
Beowulf, borrowed from Old English. Bee + wolf -> bee hunter -> bear.
Epic elements:
- actions of the hero set fate for the group or nation
- hero performs courageous deeds
- plot has supernatural beings, events; involves a long dangerous journey
- characters gives long formal speeches
- poem reflects values of courage and honour
- poem deals with universal ideas of good and evil
Though Tolkien says if anything it’s an elegy…
hero: a man like a bear.
18
Q
The feudal system in Middle Ages
A
King on top. then the crown, the chruch.
then the barons.
then the knights.
then the freemen and serfs.
19
Q
Wace’s “Brut”
A
1155.
Written in Anglo-Norman (“law-french” used in England)
It was intended for a Norman audience interested in the legends and history of the new territories of the Anglo-Norman realm, covering the story of King Arthur and taking the history of Britain all the way back to the mythical Brutus of Troy.
themes:
- rulership, loyalty -> feudal arrangement of society
- oaths and oath-giving
- markers of masculinity: armoury, weapons, tournaments of the hero
- increase of female participation in Middle-English romances
20
Q
when did the Normans invade Anglo-Saxons?
A
1066 , Battle of Hastings
new culture -> new literature!
21
Q
Ancrene Wisse
and gender studies?
A
1220?
Middle Ages
- manual for the female anchorite, a type of religious hermit who lives in permanent, spatially fixed enclosure
- gives advise on how to resist temptation
22
Q
Middle Age Poem
Piers Plowman
A
Piers Plowman (written c. 1370–90)
Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland.
- written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called passus (Latin for “step”).
Like the Pearl Poet’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers Plowman is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest works of English literature of the Middle Ages, even preceding and influencing Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
- Piers Plowman contains the first known allusion to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales.
23
Q
Chaucer
A
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 -1400), - several professions
- known as the Father of English literature
- is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages
his works:
- Romance (e.g. Troilus and Criseyde)
- Dream visions (the house of fame, the legend of good women)
- Frame narrative (the Canterbury Tales)
24
Q
The Hundred Years’ war
A
1337-1453
From medieval to Renaissance culture…
Anglo-French conflict about areas in France belonging to the Plantagenet kings
25
Elizabethan Era
Elizabeth I. : the Virgin Queen
1558 till 1603
- England's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history.
- The period is famous for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson
- and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Francis Drake.
Science by Francis Bacon
Followed by Neoclassicism, Age of Enlightenment
26
the Wars of the Roses
1455-1485
civil unrest. Houses York and Lancaster.
Finally ended when Henry VII (1485-1509) reigned. Henry Lancastrian married Elizabeth of York (after his succession), symbolic union of the two houses.
27
The pastoral
Theme, esp. during Renaissance
- idealizes the life of shepherds, rural countryside, harmony, innocence
- figure of nymphs make realistic comments
- purely aesthetic mode (not taken seriously as form of expression for 'real' feeling)
28
When did Shakespeare live?
1564 - 1616
29
Meaning of Poetry in Early Modern England,
| culturally speaking
Poetry is nation building:
| national language that is "non-barbaric"
30
Renaissance Prose
- Fabliau
(comic narrative, grotesque, humorous, peasants and bourgeoisie)
- philosophical texts /utopian 'fictions'
- -> Thomas More's "Utopia" 1516
- "commonplace books" (thoughts on interesting topics)
32
Elizabethan plays,
Features adapted from Roman and Greek drama
Tudor/Stuart stages...
- commenting chorus
- various scenes and acts
- dramatic arch
- different styles of language for different effects
Tudor/Stuart stages...
- inspired by history and mythology
- folklore, systems of belief, philosophy
- types: comedy, tragedy, (and tragicomedy)
- emergence of realist fiction
- experiential quality in storytelling
33
John Donne
1572-1631
Known for religious poetry, Anglican Minister.
Strong, sensual style and high degree of rhetoricity
Striking in imagery “conceit” -> metaphysical poet
Themes: love, belief and devotion, eroticism
-> Batter my heart;
Death be not proud
"The Flea"
34
James I.
1566-1625
1567- 1603 James VI. King of Scotland
1603 till death in 1625 also known as James I. King of England and Ireland.
Predecessor: Elizabeth I. as Queen of England
Mary as Queen of Scotland
Successor: Charles I.
35
Gender in Early Modern England
a. k.a during Renaissance, evtl Restoration
- Continuation of the medieval question: "What is a woman?"
- notions challenged by figure of Elizabeth I, but also writers like Aphra Behn (17th century)
- play with gender specificities in Shakespeare's comedies
36
Metaphysical poetry
Early modern;
- often, but not always devotional in content
- striking imagery, for instance, the metaphysical conceit, I.e. yoking together of images that do not seem to cohere well
- combination of intellect and passion
- very lose retroactive grouping
37
Civil War during reign of Charles I.
Began 1642
He had taken away Parliament privileges
38
Years of Commonwealth
1649-1660
From execution of Charles I. till return of Charles II. from France
39
Andrew Marvel, To his Coy Mistress
Possibly written during or just before Interregnum. (Ca. 1649-1660)
Carpe diem poetry.
Tells his mistress how short their life is and so how they shouldn’t waste time and be intimate.
40
Interregnum
1649-1660
Period between kings (Charles I. executed and accession as king of Charles II.)
41
The country wife
The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time.
William Wycherley(c. 1641 – 1 January 1716) who was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.
42
Charles II.
1630-1685
Time of Restoration
43
Restoration
Began 1660.
Restoration of monarchy and English theatre
44
Glorious Revolution
1688
was the deposition and replacement of James II and VII as ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland by his daughter Mary II and his Dutch nephew and Mary's husband, William III of Orange, which took place between November 1688 and May 1689.
Mary: protestant, was natural heir for long time, till James then had a son (catholic)
45
Exclusion crisis
1678-81
Three times during these years exclusion bills were passed, excluding James (Charles II. catholic brother) from the throne, only to be refused or dissolved by Charles II.
46
Act of Settlement
1701
47
George I.
Reign:
1714-1727
(Born 1660)
Predecessor: Queen Anne (his second cousin and daughter of James II, who was deposed in Glorious Revolution in 1688. First her sister Mary reigned w her husband, then her husband, then Anne in 1702)
48
Jacobite Rebellions
(By supporters of Stuart monarchy)
1689, 1715, 1745
50
Declaration of Breda
1660, prior to his being offered the monarchy.
| Charles II. recognized “liberty to tender consciences”. Meaning he granted religious toleration
51
Act of Uniformity
Passed in 1662 , made law in 1663
by Parliament. During Time of Restoration.
Required, among other things, that ministers agree to an Episcopalian form of church government (bishops running the Church rather than Presbyterian form run by the congregations’ memberships).
52
Test Act
(During time of Restoration)
Parliament passed it in 1673, designed to exclude Roman Catholics and dissenting Protestants from any government office (except the House of Lords)
53
James II.
Brother of Charles II.
James II. Of England and also James VII of Scotland.
In first year appointed Catholics as officers of the army, in violation of the 1673 Test Act.
And for the first time since 1530s normalized England’s diplomatic relations with Rome.
Declaration of Indulgence : offered free exercise of religion (but also included he wished all were catholic)
54
The Whigs
The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and were the standing enemies of the Stuart kings and pretenders, who were Roman Catholic.
55
Renaissance Drama
features of development
- beginnings of psychological interiority
- probability
- realism
- allegory
- history
- stage-craft
56
The Tories
members of two political parties which existed sequentially in the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain and later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the 17th to the early 19th centuries. The first Tories emerged in 1678 in England, when they opposed the Whig-supported Exclusion Bill which set out to disinherit the heir presumptive James, Duke of York, who eventually became James II of England and VII of Scotland.
57
Canterbury tales
collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400
58
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser 1552-1599
was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse, and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.
59
Ben Jonson
1572-1637
English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy.
He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry; he is generally regarded as the second most important English playwright during the reign of James VI and I after William Shakespeare.[3]
60
Christopher Marlowe
1564-1593
(stabbed to death in London)
wrote in blank verse (mostly non-rhyming iambic pentameter)
- vivid, dynamic dialogue, love mostly destructive lust, cruel and fierce world
e. g. Rich Jew of Malta; Doctor Faustus (1594)
62
John Dryden
1631-1700 --> Restoration Period
English poet, literary critic and translator and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romanticist writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John."
Dryden was the dominant literary figure and influence of his age. He established the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments, prologues, and plays with it; he also introduced the alexandrine and triplet into the form. In his poems, translations, and criticism, he established a poetic diction appropriate to the heroic couplet—Auden referred to him as "the master of the middle style"[22]—that was a model for his contemporaries and for much of the 18th century.
What Dryden achieved in his poetry was neither the emotional excitement of the early nineteenth-century romantics nor the intellectual complexities of the metaphysicals. His subject matter was often factual, and he aimed at expressing his thoughts in the most precise and concentrated manner.
Although he uses formal structures such as heroic couplets, he tried to recreate the natural rhythm of speech, and he knew that different subjects need different kinds of verse.
63
Daniel Defoe
1660- 1731 --> Restoration?
born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy.
He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations.
He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson.
64
Texts by Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders in 1722
A journal of the plague year
Robinson Cruesoe 1719
65
Morte Darthur
reworking of existing tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material (e.g., the Gareth story).
Le Morte d'Arthur was first published in 1485 by William Caxton, and is today one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature in English.
66
fabliaux
```
A fabliau (plural fabliaux) is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between ca. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by sexual and scatological obscenity, and by a set of contrary attitudes—contrary to the church and to the nobility.
Several of them were reworked by Giovanni Boccaccio for the Decameron and by Geoffrey Chaucer for his Canterbury Tales. Some 150 French fabliaux are extant, the number depending on how narrowly fabliau is defined. According to R. Howard Bloch, fabliaux are the first expression of literary realism in Europe.
```
Typical fabliaux contain a vast array of characters, including cuckolded husbands, rapacious clergy, and foolish peasants, as well as beggars, connivers, thieves, and whores. Two groups are often singled out for criticism: the clergy[15] and women. The status of peasants appears to vary, based on the audience for which the fabliau was being written. Poems that were presumably written for the nobility portray peasants (vilains in French) as stupid and vile, whereas those written for the lower classes often tell of peasants getting the better of the clergy.
67
Novel in 1st half of 18th century
- various lineages of where the term novel comes from
- eagerness to news; news/novel-complex
-
68
Samuel Richardson
1689-1761
Printer, asked to write a guide to writing letters
Wrote ‘Pamela’
1740 by Richardson
Letters from Pamela Andrews to her honest, poverty stricken parents.
She resists her masters advances, his bribes, his psychological pressures and finally her own growin response to him. When once he learned to appreciate and respect her nature he proposes marriage in earnest, she accepts and then continues showing her virtue in marital status.
Response by Henry Fielding: ‘Shamela’ (1741); anti-heroine. Is only tactical virtue
69
Jonathan Swift
1667-1745
Anglo-Irish, lived in London most of his life
- friend of Alexander Pope
-
70
Gullivers Travels
Satire on the successful travel writing genre
Had social criticism in it
Plays w rules of perception
Similar to Lewis Carroll’s Alice
70
Epistolary novels
Letters
Sense of authenticity and emotional immediacy
71
Novel ‘Clarissa’
1747-1748 by Samuel Richardson
As response to Fieldings ‘Shamela’.
Published in separate installments, marks an immense stride in technique (unlike in Pamela).
Leads to an orchestra of communing and conflicting voices, in letters.
She also has to defend herself against sexual takeover. But ends with her total distinction of personal autonomy.
Clarissa believes she can ‘convert’ Lovelace and he believes he can reveal her to be, as woman, a purely sexual and not a morally responsible being.
72
Henry Fielding
1759-1767
Wrote ‘An apology for the life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews’
Wrote the novel: 'Tom Jones'
Bildungsroman
New: 3rd person omniscient narrator, who also has knowledge of interiority of character
74
Social situation in early 18 century
Defoe depicts some issues in his narratives (esp. Mill Flanders and Roxana):
- instability of modern identity
- fragility of communal bonds and support networks
- unforgiving economic laws of the market
- dangers of isolated individuality
- gendered social realities, difficulties for women w/o husband or profession
75
Magazines during first half of 18th century (age of reason?)
Tatler
Spectator
-> influenced beginning of novel, which at the time meant short story for popular reading, often issues in collections
76
Novel ‘ Evelina
By Frances Burney (1752-1840)
In 1778.
Looks at world through eyes of young girl facing limbo between dependance on elders and dependence on a husband. Can do nothing to increase her own worth, conscious or value.
77
Sentimental literature in 18th century
.
78
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole
( 1717 – 1797), also known as Horace Walpole, was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician.
79
Ben Jonson, Ode to Himself
"Come leave the loathed stage"
talks about him actually being too good for the stages.
Here he's basically using a bunch of classical allusions to say "What's the deal Ben, has your artistic inspiration dried up, do you have nothing left in you?" He's also taking a characteristic dig at his contemporaries, he's saying or are these symbols of artistic inspiration being ruined by "chattering pies." I have the sense that the "seats and bowers" is an allusion to the much loathed theater at this point in his life
"great and free minds" should not worry about "fortune," i.e. the praise of others. So, writing good artistic poetry is better than being a popular poet/playwright.
He basically says, "Hey Ben, so do your own thing and forget about those popular forms of poetry and about plays, pursue your art your way."
Ben Jonson basically had a humongous ego.
80
Paradise Lost
By John Milton in 1667 (1st ed)
1674 (2nd ed)
Enhanced blank-verse
About ‘the Fall’ of man and the promise and means of Restoration. And about free will, reconsideration of concepts of freedom, heroism, work, pleasure, language, nature and love.
Epic poetry during second half of 18 century, by recipe: starts in middle of things. Reader could expect grand battles, love affairs, supernatural intervention, catalogues of warriors and epic similes.
81
Famous epic authors/poets
Homer and Virgil, 15 century Tasso and Ariosto, English Spencer (1552-1599) e.g the fairie queene
John Milton: ‘Paradise lost’
82
An essay of dramatic Poesy
By John Dryden
In 1668
probably written during the plague year of 1666.
attempts to justify drama as a legitimate form of "poetry" comparable to the epic, as well as defend English drama against that of the ancients and the French.
The treatise is a dialogue between four speakers:
Eugenius (protests against ancient authority and wants idea of progress in the arts)
Crites (pro ancient drama);
Lisideius (urges the excellence of French plays)
Neander (means ‘new man’, speaking in the climactic postition, defends native tradition and greatness of Shakespeare, Fletcher and Jonson.
Dialogue takes place on boat on Thames River while English and Dutch Fleets or in battle, when gunshots recede they return back to London.
83
Renaissance
‘Rebirth’ / rediscovery of antiquity (classical texts, civilizations and culture)
English renaissance begins approx 1520
-> belatedness, abt 100 yrs after beginning in Italy
Term ‘early modern’ includes more developments of the time
84
John Fletcher
(1579–1625)
- a Jacobean playwright.
- followed William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men
- he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's.
- his reputation has been far eclipsed since, but Fletcher remains an important transitional figure between the Elizabethan popular tradition and the popular drama of the Restoration.
85
Spenserian stanza
E.g in the Fairie Queene (by Edmund Spenser 1590-96)
Each stanza contains nine lines in total:
eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'alexandrine' line (includes caesura) in iambic hexameter.
The rhyme scheme of these lines is "ababbcbcc."
86
Shakespearean sonnet
The form consists of fourteen lines structured as three quatrains and a couplet. The third quatrain generally introduces an unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic "turn", the volta. In Shakespeare's sonnets, however, the volta usually comes in the couplet, and usually summarizes the theme of the poem or introduces a fresh new look at the theme. With only a rare exception, the meter is iambic pentameter.
87
commedia dell'arte (drama)
Commedia dell'arte, was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italy, that was popular in Europe from the 16th through the 18th century.
- both improvised and scripted
- jokes, foolish, witty
- stock characters w/ telling names
women roles by women starting 1560s
88
Theatrical interregnum
1642-1660
| Puritans in Parliament, leader Oliver Cromwell who died 1658.
89
Restoration drama
- stock characters
- theatres more indoors
- upper class was audience, wanted to see more characters like themselves
- wit (instead of physical comic as in comedia del arte)
- tragedy was unfashionable, so no more Kings, gods etc etc more concerned with life at court
Begin 1660,
Popular up to end of 18th century
90
Some literary works by John Dryden
- the conquest of Granada by the Spaniards (1670/71) - Drama
- an essay of dramatic poesy (1668)
- marriage a la mode (restoration comedy, 1672)
- annus mirabilis (restoration poetry; 1666)
91
‘Early modern’
- what changes/developments does this term include?
Is much broader term than ‘Renaissance’, as it denotes developments unrelated to the rediscovery of antiquity:
- print market (circulation of knowledge)
- reformation (challenge of world views)
- imperialism (expansion of ‘known’ world)
- ‘Landflucht’ (ppl moving to urban centers)
In literature includes what we would classify as- Renaissance and Restoration
92
The chain of being
```
The great chain of being is a strict hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought in medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God. The chain starts with
God and progresses downward to
angels, demons (fallen/renegade angels),
stars, moon,
kings, princes, nobles,
commoners,
wild animals, domesticated animals,
trees, other plants,
precious stones, precious metals and
other minerals.
```
The great chain of being is a concept derived from Plato, Aristotle (in his Historia animalium), Plotinus and Proclus. Further developed during the Middle Ages, it reached full expression in early modern Neoplatonism.
93
religious drama; mystery, miracle and saints' plays
Forms of Medieval Theatre.
- street art form
So during time when England was part of Catholic Europe, before Henry VIII and Elizabeth, etc.
e.g. Towneley Plays
94
Middle Ages
In history of Europe lasted from 5th-15th century.
Devided into early, high and late middle ages.
Began with fall of Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery (15th-18th century)
95
Romance in Medieval age
from old french 'romans': a work written in French or a related vernacular language
in England 13th century
most important secular lit of entertainment of Middle Ages
--> chivalry, martial deeds, single noble hero
usually either matter of Rome, France or Britain (Arthur)
typical structure: integration, disintegration, reintegration.
96
Renaissance Sonnets
Petrarchan:
abba abba cede cde
English:
abab cdcd efef gg
topic unreachable love becomes more personalized
97
Troilus and Criseyde
by Chaucer.
Romance. Tragic love story, set against the context of Trojan war. 5 books in rime royal, seven-line stanzas.
Cortship and brief love affair of Troilus and Criseyde, but she leaves Troilus for another man
Chaucer's most famous work in the medieval and early modern periods.
98
Characters in Hamlet
Hamlet Senior
Hamlet Jr.
Claudius - Hamlet’s uncle, king of Denmark
Gertrude - his mom, the queen
Polonius - Lord Chamberlain, Ophelia’s and Laertes dad
Ophelia - Hamlets Love interest
Laertes
Fortinbras - Prince of Norway, hamlets father killed his father
99
The Knight's tale
Part of Canterbury Tales (Middle Ages)
Plays in ancient Greece.
Both Palamon and Arcite fall in love with Emily. Formerly friends they start fighting and when King finds them (though they were exiled) doesn't kill them but tell them to have a tournament and winner can have Emily (sister of King's wife).
Though Palamon loses the tournament Saturn's rage (from hell) kills Arcite so in the end Palamon wins after all and can live happily ever after with Emily.
Themes:
Romance with epic overtones
Tragic love story
love, pagan vs. Christian beliefs, influence of supernatural /the plantes/ the gods, fate and providence, the ideal ruler
The Miller's Tale follows up on Knight's Tale..
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The Miller's Tale
From the Canterbury Tales (Middle Ages)
Fabliau,
combines motifs of "the misdirected kiss" and "the second flood"
- parody of courtly love
- as transformation of the Knight's tale...time and space, class and characters (also the tellers), diff perspectives on narrative and the world (more factual, down-to-earth)
-> The Host suggest the Monk as the next teller, but the
drunken Miller interrupts, offering a ‘noble tale’ of his
own to ‘quite’ the Knight’s.
Chaucer the Pilgrim apologises in advance.
Carpenter of Oxford has young wife, Alisoun. clerk Nicholas makes advances and they have affair. Absalon, parish clerk also lusts for her but Nicholas is there first.
Nicholas tricks Carpenter (John) into there being a second flood (like Noah). Nicholas, Alisoun and Carpenter climb in when flood is due, when John falls asleep they climb out and go back to bedroom. There the other guy comes wants to kiss her but instead she holds out her butt and so he kisses that.
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recurring themes in Canterbury Tales
- narrative and its relation to the world
- complexity of life and the world, many opinions that point to various truths
- love, men, women and impower, marriage
- fate, destiny, providence
- deception
- good/bad behaviour, sinful vs. pious Christian life
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Shakespeare tragedies
"everybody dies"
Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida
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Shakespeare comedies
"Nothing is what it seems"
```
All's Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
Comedy of Errors
Love's Labour's Lost
Measure for Measure
Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of Windsor
Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado about Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
```
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Shakespeare Romances
"the late plays"
also called the "Tragicomedies"
Pericles
The Winter’s Tale
Cymbeline
The Tempest
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meta-drama
A play that comments on its own status as a work of dramatic art
Makes references to drama, the theatre, acting, and brings it in context with how it represents its action
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Shakespeare's Plays:
| Sum up of themes
- Translatability – stretching the gap between the universal and the particular
- Multivocality – different views are represented, no “omniscient narrator” or commenting authorial “message” in the play
- Psychological Realism
- Transcendence
- Power
- Race
- Gender
- Knowledge systems
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Allegory
literary scholars call a character in a literary work that symbolically stands in for an abstract concept
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Social order in Middle Ages
- Division of society in groups
Those who pray, those who fight, those who Labour.
The freemen, the knights, the serfs.
(Piers Plowman pictures same social order)
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Kenning
Used in Old English Poetry (and old Norse and Icelandic)
- a circumlocution (periphrasis, speech that circles around an idea with many words instead of stating it directly) in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single word noun.
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The rover (play)
By Aphra Behn, 1668
Restoration comedy
Carnival times in Naples, Italy
Amorous adventures of a group of Englishmen.
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Characters The Tempest
Prospero
Miranda
Ariel (spirit helper)
Sycorax - Ariels former master
Caliban - Sycorax’ son, now servant of Prospero
Ferdinand - son and heir of King Alonso
Alonso - King of Naples, helped Antonio
Antonio -Prospero’s brother, tried to get him killed
Sebastian - Alonso’s brother
Gonzalo - lord, helped Prospero and Miranda escape w/ lives
Trinculo and Sebastian - jester and butler
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The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy
By Lawrence Sterne in 1759
Title ‘life and opinions’ is ironic bc much of the story predates Tristrams birth.
Upsets all conventions of novel writing / ‘realistic’ or modern prose writing
Meta fictional elements
Extremely complex time-scheme -> sense of timelessness
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Middle English Genres
- Religious lit
(saints', mystical)
- Allegorical poetry
(Langland's Piers Plowman)
- Comedy - fabliaux and satire
(The Miller's Tale, etc.)
- Dream visions
- History and Romance
(Arthuriana, Sir Gawain and the green knight, Malory's Le Morte Darthur)
- Lyrics and drama
(middle english lyrics, mystery plays)
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
late 14th century
dialect: Northwest Midlands
Tradition of alliterative poetry (Alliterative revival), specific to the West and North (vs. newer modes in London e.g. Chaucer)
New Years feast in Camelot, a strange knight enters Arthur’s hall. Completely green, carrying a holly branch and an axe, he issues a festive challenge, a knight must strike him with the axe and then in a year and a day accept and return the blow.
Arthur wants to do it but then Gawain steps in and decapitates the knight who picks up his head and rides out, instructing Gawain to seek him out at the green chapel.
