part one: early & medieval english literature english and american literature & selected...

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

English and American Literature &

Selected Readings

：魏晓红 : weixiaohonghd@163.com

: 13931098970

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Contents Discussion

Piers Plowman

Par

t 1: Ea

rly

& M

edie

val

E

nglis

h L

iter

ature

An Analysis

Comments

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Discussion

What can we learn

from Beowulf?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

1. Key facts

2. The point of view

3. Major characters

4. The plots

5. Major themes

6. The symbols

Revision on Beowulf

1. Loyalty 2. Reputation3. Generosity 4. Hospitality 5. Envy6. Revenge7. Heroism

1. necklace 2. banquet3. Heorot hall 4. The cave 5. claw, head6. Beowulf, Dam

1. Author: 2. Genre: 3. Protagonist: 4. Language: 5. Setting: 1) Time ~: 2) Place ~:6. Published:

epic

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

1. Alliteration

2. Metaphors and

understatements

3. Secular with Christian overlay

4. Symbols

Features of Beowulf

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Some Terms

• Alliteration:

• The accented words in a line begin with the

same consonant sound with the functions of

emphasizing and helping to memorize

things.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Some Terms

• Metaphor ( 隐喻，暗喻 ): implied comparison

• Metaphor is a figure of speech （修辞格） that

makes a comparison between two unlike things th

at are basically dissimilar, with no “as” or “like”.

For example:

1. n. → His face is a map of time.

2. v. → Snow clothes the ground.

3. a. → We had a pleasant, homey

evening.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Understatement ( 低调陈述 )

• Understatement 低调 : Minimize the importance.

• ↔ Hyperbole 夸张 : Maximize the importance.

e.g.

1) It took a few dollars to build the indoor swimming pool.

2) I have studied it and I know a thing or two.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Chapter 3

Feudal England

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Anglo-Norman Period

History Literature

Norman Conquest

Danish Invasion

Feudal England

Romance

Geoffrey Chaucer

William Langland

Medieval English Literature

English Ballads

Important Points

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Group work

What is the influence of the Norman

Conquest on the English language?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

The Influence on the English Language

• Subjects:

1) Chivalry

2) Interests in Women

3) Respect to Virgin Mary

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Vocabulary:

French words of

warfare and chivalry,

art and luxury,

science and law

The Influence on the English Language

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Frenchnobles, lords

English subject( 臣民 )

scholar

romances

no written

chronicles,religious poems

literaturelanguagespeaker

English

Latin

The Influence on the English Language

By the end of the 14th century: English, dominant

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Introduction to the History of English

Map of the Division

Old English

5th-11th century

Middle English

12th-15th century

Early Modern English1450-1700

Modern English

from about 1700

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Discussion

What is romance?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

• Form: long composition in verse, in prose

• Content: description of life and adventures of a

noble hero remote from real life in Middle Ages

• Character: knight with chivalry and devoted to

the church and the king

Romance ( 骑士故事 )

Literary TermLiterary Term

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Group Work

1. How many kinds of Romance?

2. What are the major woks?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

The Romance CyclesThree Groups

matters of Britain

matters ofFrance

matters of Rome

English versions translated from French or Latin

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

French Group: Matter of France

Adventures of Emperor

Charlemagne and his peers

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Roman Group: Matter of Roman

Adventures of

Alexander the Great

and the attacks of Troy

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

English Group: Matter of Britain

Adventures of King Arthur

& his Knights of

the Round Table

from French or Latin

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

beginning: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain《大不列颠国王史》 (Latin);Layamon’s Brut 《布鲁特》(alliterative and rimed English verse)

origin: Celtic legends

English Group: Matter of Britain

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Summing up:

Thomas Malory’s

Le Morte D’Arthur

(The Death of King Arthur)

《亚瑟王之死》

English Group: Matter of Britain

culmination( 顶点 ): Sir Gawain and the Green Knight《高文爵士和绿色骑士》 (metrical romance)

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Group work 1. Who is Malory?

2. What is Le Morte

D’Arthur about?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

1) the adventures of the Knights of the Rou

nd Table( 圆桌武士 )at Arthur’s court;

Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, 1470

2) the quest of the Holy Gra

il ( 圣杯 );

3) the illicit love affair of Sir Launc

elot and Queen Guinevere;

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

4) the death of Arthur;

Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur

5) the dissolution ( 解除，解散 ) of

fellowship of the Knights of t

he Round Table.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Prevailing Literature in Feudal England

1. Romance: in verse, prose, 3 cycles

2. First in Latin and French, then in

English

3. For the nobles

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Chapter 4

William Langland威廉 · 郎格兰

(c.1330—1387) (c.1332—1386)(c.1330—1400) (c.1332—1400)

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Student’s Presentation

How much do you know

about Langland and his

Piers Plowman?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

An Analysis of Piers Plowman

1. The Key Facts

2. Major Plots

3. Major Characters

4. The Symbols

5. Major Themes

6. Writing Features

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Key Facts of Piers Plowman1. Author:

2. Genre:

3. Language:

4. Plots:

5. Setting:

6. Published:

William Langland

allegorical narrative

Middle English

Dream, searching

14th-century England

A-Text:1360-70B-Text:1377-79C-Text:1380s

ca.1360-87

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Some Terms

• Allegory （寓言）• Allegory is a tale in verse or prose in which c

haracters, actions, or settings represent abstr

act ideas or moral qualities. An allegory is a s

tory with two meanings, a literal meaning

（字面意义） and a symbolic meaning （象征意义） .

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

• An allegory is a device in which

characters or events represent or

symbolize ideas and concepts,

with the second meaning beneath

the surface.

Allegory ( 寓言，讽喻 )

Literary TermLiterary Term

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

• Characters in allegory are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity( 博爱 ), greed, or envy, etc..

Allegory ( 寓言，讽喻 )

Literary TermLiterary Term

giving human qualities to animals, objects The Cat and Rats are personified.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Major Plots

• Will’s dream, seeing

• Piers’s Guide to search for Truth,

• Narrator’s quest for Dowel, Dobet, Dobest

a field full of folk of all social

classes, including beggars,

members of religious orders,

knights, kings, and plowmen,

going about the various activities

of life

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Major Characters .

1. The narrator: Will

2. The plowman: Piers

3. Parasites

4. The cat and rats

5. Characters in Lady Meed

6. Seven sins

7. Dowel, Dobet, Dobest

All the characters

have their own

symbolic meanings.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Symbols

1.Characters

2.Names

3.Animals

4.Objects

5.Actions

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Symbols

1. Humans:

2. Animals:

3. Objects:

Piers:

A field of folk:

King :

working class

God

Rats:

The Cat :

Good Parliament

The ruling class

Castle:

Dungeon :

heaven

hell

human kind

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Symbols

4. Character’s Names:

WillConscience Do-welDo-betDo-best

Meed 贿赂 Fickle-tongue 说谎人

Lechery 色鬼

Avarice 贪婪

Sloth 懒惰

Glutton 贪食者

SatirePursuit

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Symbols

1) Argument: Conscience, Meed,

Conflict between good & evil

2) The King’s stealing:

corruption

5. Actions:

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Themes

1. What are the themes of Piers

Plowman?

2. Find out the examples from the

text-book.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Themes

1. Exposure of the Ruling Class

2. Sympathy for the Poor, the needed

3. Equality of men before God

4. Dignity of labor

5. Pursuit of Truth, Good

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

1. Parasites:

bishops and deacons 大主教　 助祭，副主祭

cardinal （天主教）红衣主教

idlers: friars, monks, hermits　　　　托钵修士　　　　　　隐士

religion, personified

Serjeants=lawyers

the King

Exposure of the ruling classes

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Sympathy for the poor and the needed

1) The Poor: prisoners in dungeon ( 地牢 ), baby cries, narrow room,… to show social discontent of the poor

2) Conscience’s need in “The Marriage of Lady Meed”

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Piers ， teaches them:

So, peasants are the

nearest to the truth and the

salvation of the soul.

Equality, Dignity, Truth

Labor can guide the

Pilgrims to the right way to

the Truth.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Major Writing Features

1. Allegory, symbols

2. Alliteration

3. Personification

4. Satire

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

1. Allegory

Literal Symbolic

Dungeon → → → Castle

Hell → → → → → Heaven

Sins → → → → → Truth

1) Characters

2) Names

3) Animals

4) Objects

5) Actions

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

1) “They leapt away to London,

To be clerks of the King’s Bench and

despoil the land.”

2) “God forbid, quoth Conscience,

Woe betide me, if such a wife I wed.”

2. Alliteration

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

3)“There wandered a hundred, in hoods of silk,

Serjeants (lawyers) they seemed,

and served at the Bar,

Pleading the Law,

for pennies and for the pounds.”

Practice: Alliteration

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

3. The SatirePilgrims (7 sins)

Pride, Lechery, Envy,Wrath, Avarice,Sloth, Glutton

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

The Satire

“The Marriage of Lady Meed”

1. Lady Meed’s deeds

2. the King’s reconciliation

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

4. Personification

1) The Cats and Rats

“striding sternly forth”

2) Law is personified.

And if me Lacketh, Law wills that I take.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Comments on Piers Plowman

The Things I Learned

from Piers Plowman

Group Work

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Comments on Piers Plowman

• William Langland’s Piers Plowman

is an allegorical narrative poem

over 7000 lines composed from

c.1363 to c.1387, written in

unrhymed alliterative verse.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Comments on Piers Plowman

• Piers Ploughman is considered by many

critics to be one of the early great works

of English literature along with Chaucer’s

The Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and

the Green Knight during the Middle Ages.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Comments on Piers Plowman

• The poem is a classic of popular literature

throughout the 14th and the 15th century.

• It played an important role in the Rising of

1381 and the calls of John Ball.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Feudal England —Social Features

classeslandlords

peasants

It was William I who pushed Englandinto the feudal society.

church government

secular government

the King

the King’s office

Feudal order hereticsburnt alive

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

1. better than slaves

2. Black Death (1348—1349)

3. A Statute ( 法令 ) of Laborers (1350) low wages

4. The war between England and France 40 years, expenditure (cost)

5. A poll-tax ( 人头税 )

making the life pauperized.

The Miseries of the Peasants

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

The Rise of 1381

Fighting for equality with the

oppressors to have a happy life.

1. Wat Tyler & John Ball.

2. John Ball’s sermon

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Assignment

1. Comments on Piers the

Plowman.

2. Remember the literary terms?

1) allegory 2) symbol

3) personification

3. Pre-read “Ballad” and The

Canterbury Tales.

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Assignment

Questions for Pre-reading

1) What is a ballad?

2) What is the major character of

Robin Hood?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Assignment

3) How much do you know about

Chaucer?

4) What are Chaucer’s three periods

of literary career?

5) What is Chaucer’s masterpiece?

Part One:Early & Medieval English Literature

Goodbye.