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 : [email protected]

: 13931098970


Contents Discussion

Piers Plowman

Par

t 1: Ea

rly

& M

edie

val

E

nglis

h L

iter

ature

An Analysis

Comments


Discussion

What can we learn

from Beowulf?


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


1. Alliteration

2. Metaphors and

understatements

3. Secular with Christian overlay

4. Symbols

Features of Beowulf


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.


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.


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.


Chapter 3

Feudal England


Anglo-Norman Period

History Literature

Norman Conquest

Danish Invasion

Feudal England

Romance

Geoffrey Chaucer

William Langland

Medieval English Literature

English Ballads

Important Points


Group work

What is the influence of the Norman

Conquest on the English language?


The Influence on the English Language

• Subjects:

1) Chivalry

2) Interests in Women

3) Respect to Virgin Mary


Vocabulary:

French words of

warfare and chivalry,

art and luxury,

science and law



Frenchnobles, lords

English subject( 臣民 )

scholar

romances

no written

chronicles,religious poems

literaturelanguagespeaker

English

Latin


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


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


Discussion

What is romance?


• 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


Group Work

1. How many kinds of Romance?

2. What are the major woks?


The Romance CyclesThree Groups

matters of Britain

matters ofFrance

matters of Rome

English versions translated from French or Latin


French Group: Matter of France

Adventures of Emperor

Charlemagne and his peers


Roman Group: Matter of Roman

Adventures of

Alexander the Great

and the attacks of Troy


English Group: Matter of Britain

Adventures of King Arthur

& his Knights of

the Round Table

from French or Latin


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



Summing up:

Thomas Malory’s

Le Morte D’Arthur

(The Death of King Arthur)

《亚瑟王之死》


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


Group work 1. Who is Malory?

2. What is Le Morte

D’Arthur about?


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;


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.


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


Chapter 4

William Langland威廉 · 郎格兰

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


Student’s Presentation

How much do you know

about Langland and his

Piers Plowman?


An Analysis of Piers Plowman

1. The Key Facts

2. Major Plots

3. Major Characters

4. The Symbols

5. Major Themes

6. Writing Features


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


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） .


• 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 )



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

Allegory ( 寓言，讽喻 )


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


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


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.


Symbols

1.Characters

2.Names

3.Animals

4.Objects

5.Actions


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


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


Symbols

1) Argument: Conscience, Meed,

Conflict between good & evil

2) The King’s stealing:

corruption

5. Actions:


Themes

1. What are the themes of Piers

Plowman?

2. Find out the examples from the

text-book.


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


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


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”


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.


Major Writing Features

1. Allegory, symbols

2. Alliteration

3. Personification

4. Satire


1. Allegory

Literal Symbolic

Dungeon → → → Castle

Hell → → → → → Heaven

Sins → → → → → Truth

1) Characters

2) Names

3) Animals

4) Objects

5) Actions


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


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


3. The SatirePilgrims (7 sins)

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


The Satire

“The Marriage of Lady Meed”

1. Lady Meed’s deeds

2. the King’s reconciliation


4. Personification

1) The Cats and Rats

“striding sternly forth”

2) Law is personified.

And if me Lacketh, Law wills that I take.


Comments on Piers Plowman

The Things I Learned

from Piers Plowman

Group Work



• 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.



• 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.



• 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.


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


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


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


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.


Assignment

Questions for Pre-reading

1) What is a ballad?

2) What is the major character of

Robin Hood?


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?


Goodbye.

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