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LITERATURE 207GAZZARA
The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485): A Comprehensive
Overview
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Introducing the Period
Treasures from the oldest Writers of English Ancient Celtic poets of England and its neighboring lands Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Potter… Characteristics of modern heroism and heroic
plots/stakes
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Strengths of Medieval Poetry
Powerful storytellingMoments of riddling witMoral and political challengesIncantatory patterns of soundSurreal landscapesPiercing invasions of the supernatural
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Pagan and Christian
Germanic art of writing post conversion 597 Pope Gregory the Great to southeastern
kingdom of Kent Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English
People From illiterate cowherd to poet
Predominance of religious works comprise preserved works from Anglo-Saxon/medieval period Produced and preserved by Church, where
literacy thrived Christianity used Germanic poetry for its own
purposes
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“Quid Hinieldus cum Christo?”
797 Alcuin’s letter to the bishop of Lindisfarne
“What has Ingeld to do with Christ?”Alcuin’s “Ingeld” = “heroic poetry” recited to
the monks “We have heard of those princes’ heroic
campaigns.”A little versus A lot.
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Beowulf hints…
Knowledge of Germanic mythology and heroic literature = limited
Archaeology and Beowulf (a Christian conception of paganism)
Alcuin’s letter Beowulf poet HEARD and adapted oral poems
Scholars think, though, that writing of the poem occurred (not oral first)
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The Legend of Arthur
History and RomanceThe French barons rulers in the Twelth
CenturyBritannia versus Anglo-Saxon invaders“The Britons told stories…”: LEGEND BORN
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Medieval Sexuality
Idealization NOT as motiveSexual love heavy in medieval romance“Courtly love” idealizes women but
emphasizes their difference (“mercy”)LOVE AS SERVICE (slavery, religion, politics)
= women as objects of erotic-worshipUsually presented as extramarital
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Old English Epic and Bede
Celebrated the deeds of heroes in a warrior society
Psychodynamics of orality (Walter Ong); possible in Twitter age?
Similar traditions in GermanConnections between epic and history: “We
have heard…” Remember that Bede was a scholar of rhetoric—