Comprehensive Study Notes: English Literature to 1500

Bibliographic Sources\n\n* Sources include: Šoštarić, Sanja. ($2009$). English Literature to $1500$. Sarajevo: Filozofski fakultet.\n* Lectures provided by Associate Professor Ifeta Ćirić-Fazlija, PhD.\n* Practical classes conducted by Assistant Davor Njegić, MA.\n\n# General Periodization and Classification of English Literature to $1500$\n\n* The course surveys both Anglo-Saxon (High and Late) and Medieval bodies of literature.\n* Literature forms included: Verse and prose text forms.\n* Three main literary genres analyzed: Poetic, narrative (fictional and non-fictional, including epics), and dramatic genres (where applicable).\n* Thematic range: Includes both secular and religious texts, genres, and authors.\n* Contextual focus: The course examines the texts (literature) alongside the culture and history (contexts) of the English people.\n* General traits across periods and subclasses:\n * Predominance of verse over prose.\n * Predominance of religious texts over secular ones.\n * Narrative types: Most narratives (excluding epics) are non-fictional or hybrid, such as fictional/Biblical histories, chronicles, and (auto)biographies.\n * Authorship: Mostly anonymous; there is significant uncertainty regarding authorship, with the notable exception of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.\n\n# Socio-Historical Context of Anglo-Saxon (AS) Literature\n\n* Timeframe: The $5$th/$6$th century to the $11$th century ($1066$).\n* Origins: Emerged from the Germanic (Teotonic) tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes inhabiting the British Isles, primarily England, until the Norman Conquest in $1066$.\n* Term terminology: The term \"Anglo-Saxon\" was introduced by historians of a much later date.\n* Migration and Settlement Pattern:\n * Anglo-Saxon tribes initially arrived as mercenaries to protect Romanized Celts from Viking attacks and from the Scots and Picts of the North.\n * Tribes eventually migrated to England, where they either assimilated indigenous Romanized Celts or pushed them further into the border areas of Wales, Scotland, and Cornwall.\n * The tribes established dominance, implementing their own language, social structure, and religious/cultural traditions.\n* Prevailing activities: Primarily agriculture and war-faring.\n* Social organization: Based on kinship, where members were related to their king through blood ties.\n\n# The Heroic Code and Germanic Tradition\n\n* Heroic Code definition: An unwritten set of rules, conventions, and behavioral patterns implemented to prevent anarchy.\n* Comitatus: The thanes (warriors) pledged absolute allegiance to the king, promising to defend and physically protect him to the death.\n* Reciprocity: In return for protection, the king rewarded thanes with material benefits and societal respect.\n* Royal obligations: The king was required to reward, punish, protect, and be protected.\n* Wergild (Worthmoney): A value placed on a human life to settle blood feuds through monetary payment rather than continued violence.\n* Language (Germanic/Old English): A highly inflected Germanic language with no similarities to Modern English. Very few core words are preserved, such as \"qweene\" (queen) and \"cyning\" (king).\n* Literacy and Orality: The tribes lived in general illiteracy and knew no transcription of their vernacular.\n* Scopes: Germanic tribal poets, entertainers, and bards/singers vital for the preservation of national and cultural heritage. They transmitted literature orally through conventions and traditions.\n* System of belief: Originally Paganism; transitioned to the Christian code by the $7$th/$8$th century after monks (first in Latin, then in Old English) began writing down poems and sagas.\n\n# Classification and Manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon Literature\n\n* The four primary manuscripts (dating from the late $10$th to early $11$th century):\n * Beowulf Manuscript (containing Beowulf, Judith, and minor poems).\n * Junius Manuscript (containing religious texts: Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan).\n * Exeter Book (containing Christ, Guthlac, Phoenix, Juliana; The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin, and Widsith).\n * Vercelli Book (containing The Fates of the Apostles, Andreas, Elene, and The Dream of the Rood).\n* Additional fragments and poems:\n * Fight at Finsburgh.\n * Waldere fragments.\n * The Battle of Brunanburh.\n * The Battle of Maldon.\n\n# Style and Form of Anglo-Saxon Verse\n\n* Vernacular Basis: Style based on spoken language.\n* Prosody: Phrases are linked in lines where the first phrase or syllable carries the meaning (accented).\n* Alliteration: The principal organizing device of the verse lines. It is defined as the repetition of individual sounds (mostly consonants) in a sequence of words.\n* Structure: Each line is divided into two half-lines, separated by a pause termed a \"caesura.\" These half-lines are linked by alliteration (Alliterative Verse).\n* Rhyme: Scopes utilized no rhyming in their compositions.\n\n# Sub-Classification of Anglo-Saxon Literature\n\n* By Form:\n * Verse: Examples include Beowulf, Dream of the Rood, Wulf and Eadwacer, and Elene.\n * Prose: Example includes Historia Ecclesicastica Gentis Anglorum.\n* By Theme:\n * Secular/Heroic: Examples include Beowulf, Wulf and Eadwacer, and The Ruin.\n * Religious: Examples include Dream of the Rood, Elene, and Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum.\n* Christianization: Critics believe religious poetry appeared only after the late $6$th/early $7$th century missionaries arrived. Missions were led by Celtic monks and Benedictine missionaries sent from Rome by Pope Gregory the Great in $596$.\n* Anglo-Saxon Genres:\n * Epics (heroic or religious).\n * Elegies (the only intimate/personal poetry available; there was no standard lyrical poetry).\n * Homilies/Sermons (prose).\n * (Biblical) Histories (prose).\n * Saint's Lives (verse or prose).\n * Exampla and Chronicles (prose).\n\n# Poetic Figures Specific to Anglo-Saxon Texts\n\n* Kenning/ar: Metaphorical compounds of two nouns in a genitive relation (e.g., \"battle light\" = sword; \"earth-walker\" = traveler).\n* Variation/s: Periphrasis or circumlocution; referring to the same person in multiple ways to foreground different roles (e.g., Hrothgar as \"giver of treasure\" and \"folk's guardian\").\n* Formula/ae: Repetition of a word-group or phrase under the same metric conditions (e.g., \"in gear-dagum\", \"lange-while\").\n* Litotes: Ironic understatement created by negating the contrary (e.g., \"There sprang up… no little fame\").\n\n# Anglo-Saxon Heroic Epics: Beowulf\n\n* Epic and Narrative Theory: Scholars debate if epics are a separate genre or a subgenre of narratives. Epics combine features of poetry (verse/rhythm) and narratives (length/focus on action over emotion).\n* Defined as long narratives in verse performed orally in a dignified, solemn style. They deal with heroic figures during critical historical or cultural moments.\n* Beowulf Statistics and Timeline:\n * Length: Approximately $3.182$ (preserved) lines.\n * Composition: $8$th century.\n * Setting of events: $5$th/$6$th century.\n * Written down: Late $10$th century.\n* Themes and Elements:\n * Combination of generations of scops and Christian scribes; entwines Heroic and Christian codes.\n * Subject matter: Beowulf's battles against Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a fire dragon.\n * Societal focus: Tribal bonds, duties of kings/warriors, and the ritualized celebrations of the mead-hall.\n * Characterization: Beowulf is the embodiment of the heroic code (strength, courage, moral vigor, sense of honor).\n* Structure: Bipartite (two parts).\n * Part $1$: Focus on young Beowulf, his rise in power and reputation.\n * Part $2$: Focus on Beowulf's return to Geatland, his reign as king, and his ultimate fall and death.\n* Two Main Themes: Warrior society cultural codes and the transience of all earthly things (constancy of change).\n\n# Anglo-Saxon Religious Epics and Authors\n\n* Christianization currents: Celtic (Iona/Lindisfarne) and Roman (Canterbury, $601$). The Council at Whitby ($664$) was a pivotal moment.\n* Notable Authors: Recorded names include Caedmon and Cynewulf. Works not definitively by them are often attributed to their respective \"schools.\"\n* Caedmon:\n * Likely the first identified poet in AS literature, cited in Bede's Ecclesiastic History.\n * Works: Caedmon's Hymn, and (in the Junius MS) Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan.\n* Cynewulf:\n * Proof of authorship survives as he embedded his runic name acronymically in his verse.\n * Works: Christ/Ascension, Juliana, Andreas, Elene (found in Exeter and Vercelli books).\n* Hybridity: These religious epics use the characters/subject matter of the Bible but the presentation style (alliterative meter, kennings, formulas) of Germanic Heroic Epics.\n\n# The Dream of the Rood\n\n* Genre: Dream vision or allegory, which is exceptional for the Anglo-Saxon period.\n* Structure: Three shifting perspectives.\n * Introductory: A dreamer retells his vision.\n * Central: The Cross (Rood) speaks of the Crucifixion.\n * Conclusion: The dreamer addresses readers with a didactic message.\n* Portrayal: Christ is presented as a proud, self-confident Anglo-Saxon warrior.\n* Cultural Note: Carvings on the Ruthwell Cross ($8$th century) correspond to the Vercelli Book text ($9$th century).\n\n# Anglo-Saxon Elegiac Poetry\n\n* Context: Preserved in the Exeter Book. Composition date ranges from the $7$th to $10$th centuries.\n* Tone: Poignant melancholy entwined with stoicism and dignity. These poems compare happy past days with a gloomy, sad present.\n* The Exiled Drifter: A recurring motif of a wandering scop or outcast roaming the earth without the protection of a king or tribe.\n* Specific Poems:\n * Religious Elegies: The Wanderer and The Seafarer (provide the comfort of faith).\n * Secular Elegies: The Ruin, Deor's Lament, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife's Lament, and The Husband's Message.\n* The Wanderer Detail: Contains the \"ubi sunt\" (where are they?) formula, lamenting the loss of civilizations and mead-halls. The final Christian line is often seen as a later monkish addition.\n\n# Anglo-Saxon Prose Traditions\n\n* Before the $9$th Century (Latin Phase):\n * Monks and clergy wrote predominantly in Latin for religious purposes.\n * Chroniclers: Gildas (Book of Gildas/prototype for King Arthur), Nennius (History of Britons/mythologization), and Aldhelm.\n * Venerable Bede ($673-735$): Author of Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ($731$), a blend of history, religion, and fiction intended to show the superiority of Christianity.\n * Alcuin ($735-804$): Educator at Charlemagne's court; wrote De Virtutibus et Vitiis.\n* After the $9$th Century (Old English Phase):\n * Advancement led by King Alfred the Great (of Wessex, $849-901$), who translated major works (Bede, Boethius, Pope Gregory) into the vernacular.\n * Asser: Wrote the biography De Vita et Rebus Gestis Alfredi ($839$).\n * Homilists: Aelfric (Cerne Abbas, late $10$th century) and Wulfstan (author of Sermo Lupi ad Anglos).\n * Gospel Translations: The Lindisfarne Gospel ($8$th century) and the Rushworth Gospels.\n\n# English Medieval Romances\n\n* Socio-Historical Shift: The Norman Conquest ($1066$) brought French cultural hegemony, feudalism, and lingustic shifts to Middle English.\n* Romance Definition: Narratives of knightly adventures involving quests, distant lands, and battles with natural or supernatural agents.\n* Characteristics:\n * Mostly translations or adaptations from French.\n * Focus in English romances: The plot.\n * Focus in French romances: Delicate emotions and love.\n * Structures: Often incoherent and episodic.\n * Characters: Frequently \"flat\" types. Knights are ideal (courageous, honest); women are either apathetic victims or active sorcerers.\n* The Four Matters:\n * Matter of France (French legends, e.g., Chanson de Roland).\n * Matter of Rome and Greece (Antiquity, e.g., Siege of Troy).\n * Matter of England (Native tales like King Horn and Havelock the Dane).\n * Matter of Britain (Celtic/Arthurian tradition, e.g., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight).\n\n# Chivalric and Courtly Love Codes\n\n* Chivalric Code: A ritualized system within the feudal pyramid. The ideal knight is a protector of the weak, loyal to his lord, and a defender of the Christian faith (symbolized by the Knights Templar).\n* Courtly Love Code: Originated in Provence; celebrated at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. It conceptualizes love as a loyal service of a knight to his liege-lady, often involving the controversial celebration of adultery.\n\n# Arthurian Legends and Sir Gawain\n\n* Arthuriana References: Early Welsh poem Gododdin ($600$); Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the British Kings ($1137$); Layamon's Brut ($13$th century).\n* Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ($1360-1400$):\n * Part of the Alliterative Revival.\n * Written in NW Midlands dialect.\n * Structural parallelisms: Three seduction scenes, three animals of prey, three axe blows.\n * Gawain is not a flat character but a humanly frail knight learning wisdom through self-knowledge on a spiritual quest.\n\n# Late Medieval Prose and Mysticism\n\n* Chronicles: Written from a national point of view, incentivized by the Crusades. Notable authors: William of Malmesbury and Geoffrey of Monmouth.\n* Bible Translations: John Wycliff ($1328-1384$) produced the first complete English Bible in plain vernacular.\n* Conduct Books: Ancrene Riwle ($1200$) provided spiritual guidelines for anchoresses.\n* Mysticism: Works focused on personal communion with God. Authors include Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich (Showings), and Margery Kempe.\n* Travelogues: Sir John Mandeville's Travels of Sir John Mandeville was highly popular, blending Crusader experiences with the marvelous and comparing Christian and Islamic teachings.\n\n# Medieval Religious and Secular Poetry: Piers Plowman\n\n* Alliterative Revival: Shared formal features with Old English alliteration.\n* Piers Plowman (William Langland, $1362-1393$):\n * A massive dream allegory preserved in the A, B, and C texts (B-text is the supreme achievement).\n * Structure: Visio (Vision of Piers Plowman) and Vita (Vision of the ideal Christian life).\n * Estates Satire: Criticizes the corruption in the three estates: Clergy, Nobility, and Labourers.\n * Allegorical figures: Lady Meed (wealth), Truth, Reason, Conscience, and the Seven Deadly Sins.\n * Message: Individuals must seek Truth within themselves. It promotes the Life of Do-well (law/study), Do-bet (charity), and Do-best (spiritual care for others).\n\n# The Evolution of Medieval Drama\n\n* Liturgical Drama (Tropes): Emerged in the $9$th century within the Church to aid religious instruction. The earliest was the \"Quem Queritis\" (Easter trope).\n* Christmas Trope: Officium pastorum (Office of the Shepherds).\n* The Twelfth Day: Officium stelae (Office of the Star); involved more spectacle and the figure of King Herod.\n* High Middle Ages Subgenres:\n * Miracle and Mystery Plays: Heavily tied to the Bible. Cycles include Chester, Wakefield, and York.\n * Morality Plays: Evolved in the $15$th century; dramatized allegories focused on the struggle between good and evil (psychomachia).\n* Everyman ($1485$): The most famous morality play. Everyman is summoned by Death and discovers that only his Good Deeds accompany him to salvation.\n\n# Geoffrey Chaucer: Life and Literary Phases\n\n* The \"Uomo Universalis\": Chaucer ($1340-1400$) was a man of the world—soldier, diplomat, customs officer, and MP. He was fluent in French, Latin, and Italian.\n* Patronage: Closely associated with John of Gaunt.\n* French Phase (pre-$1370$): Influenced by French dream allegories. Work: The Book of the Duchess (dedicated to Blanche of Lancaster).\n* Italian Phase ($1370-1385$): Influenced by Dante and Boccaccio during diplomatic travels. Works: The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and Troilus and Criseyde.\n* English Phase ($1387-1400$): His literary mastery peak. Work: The Canterbury Tales.\n* The Canterbury Tales:\n * General Prologue introduces pilgrims from across the social estates.\n * Genre: Compilation of narratives using estates satire, romances, and exempla.\n * Frame narrative: A pilgrimage to Canterbury with Harry Bailey (inn-keeper) as the host.\n* Troilus and Criseyde ($1382-1386$): A $5$-book narrative poem in rhyme-royal exploring the fickleness of human fortune and Criseyde's betrayal of Troilus during the Siege of Troy.\n\n# Sir Thomas Malory and Morte D'Arthur\n\n* Socio-Historical Context: Late flowering of Arthuriana occurred during the bloody period between Chaucer's death and the Battle of Bosworth ($1485$).\n* Sir Thomas Malory: A knight likely writing from prison, establishing standard English prose language (East Midland dialect).\n* Morte D'Arthur ($1469$):\n * Printed by William Caxton in $1485$ into $21$ chapters; also exists as the Winchester Manuscript.\n * Structure: Eight books covering Arthur's life from birth to his fall. Dominant figures include Lancelot, Guinevere, and Mordred.\n * Theme: A nostalgic lament for the age of chivalry, portraying the discrepancy between the ideal and the real human nature.\n * Ending: Leaves the fate of Arthur ambiguous—did he die or is he at Avalon awaiting a second coming to lead the nation?", "title": "Comprehensive Study Guide to English Literature to 1500"}