Байланысты: Тілі оқытылатын елдің әдебиеті және аударма мәселелері
2. The Medieval Period (1066-1485). The official history of the medieval period begins in 1066 with the Battle at Hastings in which Harold, the king of England, was defeated by William “the Conqueror”, Duke of Normandy, William invaded England. Martial law was put into effect. A strong central government was set up. The Normans – a name derived from “Northman” – were in large part descended from Vikings who had seized and then remained in the northwestern France, which became known as Normandy. The dual kingdoms of England and Normandy established by William became the most powerful force in Europe. The form of literature much favored by Anglo-Normans was romance. The coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066-1300 marked the start of a new age for England. The new king managed to crush the remaining Anglo-Saxon resistance and distributed the land to his Norman nobles, organizing the country according to the feudal system. One of William’s innovations was to institute written public documents for most government actions. Languages used during this period. Wool Industry. The economic development. English Law. Medieval literature: The Romance. The father of English literature Geoffrey Chaucer’s earliest surviving poem is a translation, and this is indicative of the fact that one of his greatest achievements was to make the fruits of French, Latin and Italian literature, which were more refined than the English literature of the time, available in English, and, in the process, to create a new style, naturalizing the foreign influences into something distinctively English. His first original work was “The book of Duchess”. It was written in the form of allegory, a popular genre in the middle Ages. Most of his works were dream- allegories and borrows from foreign influences. “Troilus and Criseyde” is his longest complete work and has been compared with the modern psychological novel because of its deep analysis of love. His greatest work belongs not to romance but to poetic and humorous realism. One of his most important contributions to English literature is the development of the resources of the English language for literary purposes. Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” is considered to be a masterpiece. It is a collection of tales told by pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St.Thomas Becket in Canterbury (who was murdered by Henry II’s knights in the Cathedral in1170). Chaucer was familiar with Boccaccio’s “Decameron”, from which he borrows the idea of the collection of tales by different people. His pilgrims came from all classes and areas of society, and he used the connecting links between tales. He painted a rich portrait of fourteenth century life. In the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer paints the setting of the story and then proceeds to introduce his cast of characters, from the Knight to the host of Tabard Inn with a brisk flourish. In his role as a narrator, Chaucer maintains throughout an air of personal detachment; his appreciation of the individuality of his characters affords an honest and objective account of each of them. In this broad panorama of human nature, the poet reveals what is base, noble, and essentially human in all people. The first forty two lines of the Prologue are given in the original Middle English, with a Modern English translation by Nevill Coghill.
Thomas Malory was born in1400. He left his family’s seat in Warwickshire and entered upon a distinguished career. He fought in the Hundred Years’ War and was elected to Parliament in1445. It was during the days of civil disorder that preceded the Wars of Roses that his fortune took a downward course from which it never recovered. His “Morte d’ Arthur” (“Death of Arthur”) is the work that stands as the last great collection of medieval romances. Malory’s literary achievement was the compilation, arrangement and rewriting from the original Latin, French and English sources of the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of his Round Table. His serious approach to the romantic world of the gentle knights and fair ladies, however, stands in direct contrast to the lighter treatment of this theme in books such as “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’ Court” by Mark Twain, “Galahad” by John Erskine, and “The Once and Future King” by T.H.White.
2
Тема 3
The Literature of the Norman period 12th – 13th century. The First Universities. How the language changed.
