THE MIDDLE AGES

1
THE MIDDLE AGES

• From Beowulf to Chaucer

Lugnan Viviana Testolin Francesca
2
Historical context

• 5th Century Anglo-Saxon invasions
• 1066 first and last conquest of England from
  Normans
• Birth of feudal- system
• 1215 Magna Charta the process of negotiation
  between barons and the King. It limited the royal
  power
• 1381 Peasants Revolt
• 1453-1485 The war of the Roses
• 1485 the Middle Ages came to an end

3
Anglo-Saxon literature BEOWULF

• The first epic pagan poem
• It had been orally transmitted before being
  recorded on paper (10 Century)
• It was written in Old English (mix of germanic
  dialects)
• It represents Anglo-Saxons values
• Beowulf is the hero of the poem

4
Medieval Society

• Pyramidal, hierarchical organization
• Privileged code is the religious one
• ?regular code
• People were interested in salvation
• William I the Conqueror instituted the feudal
  system? lands distribuited among knights and
  barons

5
Women condition

• Wives or nuns
• Underrated inside the society
• Often considered as witches (people believed in
  supernatural)
• Private and domestic sphere considered a womans
  world
• Restricted education

6
The ballad

• Narrative poem
• Orally transmitted
• Revived during the romantic period
• For common people
• Characters simply sketched
• Themes tragical events, supernatural, demon
  love, battles on the boarder between Scotland and
  England
• Use of music

7
Medieval literature

• Mystery plays stories taken from the Old
  Testament, the Creation and Fall to the last
  Judgement. Performed inside the church and later
  brought outside
• Morality plays allegorical tales in which human
  qualities were personified (vices and virtues)

8
The Canterbury tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)

• Written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer
• First masterpiece of English literature
• Inspired by Boccaccios Decameron
• Series of linked stories
• Pilgrimage to Canterbury
• Characters belonged to different social classes
• Characters both individuals and stereotype