Riassunti inglesi

The Epic Poem

The development of early English literature is traditionally divided into Anglo-Saxons(650-110) or Old English period and Anglo-Norman or Middle English period(110-1450).

Anglo-Saxon poetry was essentially oral, it was formed in a long process of collective memorisation, from mouth to mouth. In most cases compositions were anonymous.

His social function was extremely important because it provided a common cultural identity.

The two major epic poems in the Western tradition are Iliad and Odyssey

• It is a long narrative poetical composition.
• It deals with the recollection of a glorious past in the national history of a country.
• The society described is aristocratic and military.
• The style is elevated, the vocabulary is rich and various
• Important features are formulas

The Pagan Elegy

The complementary mode to epic poetry is the elegy.

• It is a lyrical poem where an isolated speaker expresses his loss of friendship.
• The images are active rather than static but the mood is melancholic.
• The elements of personal experience convey a moving view of the human condition.
• One of the favourite themes is the figure of the exile
• The main character is the wanderer
• Alliteration is frequently used

The Medieval Ballad

Much of medieval literature is poetry. A popular genre was that of metrical romances, mainly translated from French models. They consisted of tales in verse about chivalry, love fairies, giants, dragons.

Popular ballads produced anonymously and sung with or without accompaniment or dance. They were transmitted orally and written down between the 13th and 14th centuries. Here are the features of popular ballads.

· They are composed of short stanzas of two or four lines, usually rhyming ABCB.

· Each stanza contains the repetition of words or lines; the repetition of one or more lines is called refrain and helped the memorisation of the text.

· They can contain a mixture of dialogue and narration.

· They present the narrative not as a continuous sequence of events, but as a series of rapid flashes. Their universe is peopled with speaking animals and birds, fairies, witches and ghosts who return from the grave.

· Their characters are not described physically or psychologically.

Ballads can be classified according to the following themes:

· Ballads of magic about fairies. ghosts. witchcraft and transformation;

· Border ballads. about the rivalry between the English and the Scottish people;

· Ballads of love and domestic tragedy;

· Ballads of outlaws. with the cycle of Robin Hood

·

The medieval narrative poem

Collections of stories were very popular in the Middle Ages and their purpose was to entertain and instruct. Narrative poems told stories in verse; the greatest example of a narrative poem is

Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Which is a long poem framed by a General Prologue,

where each tale has meaning in relation to the character of its teller and to the other character in the poem, who make up the audience.

Here are the features of the narrative poem.

• It contains a variety form of narrative elements.
• It shows links with the moral view of time.
• It provides an insight into individual characters regarding their lifestyles

The Medieval Drama

The origins of the theatre in Britain are linked to religious celebrations.

These performances took place in the nave of the church at first, but they were soon moved elsewhere. This meant that Latin was replaced with English and people took the place of monks and priests in these performances.The 'Miracle Plays' came into being during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, Bible from the creation of Adam to the Resurrection of Christ and the Last Judgement.

Miracle Plays were staged by members of the trade guilds and were mainly performed on movable stage wagons called pageants which stopped at some places in the town. These pageants were open on all sides.

The next development in drama were the 'Morality Plays', whose characters were not taken from the Bible. They were personifications of human vices and virtues. One of the most popular Morality Plays was Everyman.

At the end of the 15th century the word 'Interlude' ; it referred to a short play, usually performed at a lord's house. It tried to combine serious and comic elements.

Beowulf

It deals with the legend of Beowulf, a young Scandinavian hero who fights two gigantic monsters, Grended and Grendel’s mother to bring happiness to the Kingdom of Heorot in Denmark.The final events take place fifty years later, when Beowulf is the old king of the Geats.The old hero killed a fire-breathing monster but he is mortally wounded.

Beowulf is an epic poem since it celebrates the great actions of protagonist.(Beowulf=Bee-Wolf ‘Bear’) The courtly ideal of the warrior.Superhuman powers are attributed to him.

The first one to be described is Grendel a giant or a dragon.Grendel’s mother is a dragon.

The society is aristocratic and military with Christian ideals.Other themes include of time ,the cult of fame and the features.

The language employed in Beowulf is rich .Lots of alliteration , parallelisms, antithesis.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer was born around 1343,the son of a London wine merchant.He led a very busy life, he served three kings Edward III,Richard II and Henry IV as an esquire of the royal court, a customs controller and he took part important diplomatic missions.Even if his background was that of the urban middle class and he supported John Wycliffe and Lollardy.He died in 1400 and was the first poet to be buried in Westminster Abbey , in what was to become the Poets’Corner.

Chaucer is regarded as the father of English literature.His language , the dialect of his native London became standart.Chaucerwhere he interested in Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.His works divided into three periods:the French, The Italian and the English.

The French period

• The boke of the Duchesse
• The Romanuntof the Rose

The Italian period

• The House of Fame
• The Legende of Good Women
• Troylus and Criseyde

The English period

· Canterbury Tales

Canterbury Tales

It is spring and thirty people, all beloging to defferent social classes and including. Chaucer himself, are going on a pilgrimage to Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury. They gather at the Tabard Inn in London .The host of the inn suggests that every pilgrim should tell two stories while going to Canterbury, and two coming back. He says that there will be a prize for the best story as well as a penalty for anyone who gives up.

The work consists of a General Prologue where the pilgrims are intriduced, and of twenty-for tales .Canterbury is the symbol of the celestial city itself, and the jouney of the pilgrims becomes the allegory of the human life .The work remained unfinished.

Chaucer used rhyming couplets made up of iambic pentameters :Chaucer writes realistically exaggeration ,caricature and the grotesque.