EN392 Chapter 1: week 1 readings
EN392
Readings for Quiz 1
Broadview
Xxxiii – lxxi
The Medieval Period
• Medieval literature in England included works written in English, Latin, Anglo-Norman French,
Middle Welsh, and Old Irish
• Bitish ad Eglish ae ot itehageale
o Entwined with political realities and national identities
o Bitish deies fo the Roa ae fo eal Celti settles i hat e o all the
British Isles
o Eglish efes to the Geai iades ad settles ho ega aiig i the th
century, pushed the Celtic inhabitants to the west and the north (now Wales &
Scotland), & eventually ruled the central part of the island
o Those who tried to claim legitimate rulership of England made strategic use of the
Bitish taditio those suoudig Kig Athu
• Much of what remains in written form from the MA had a prior existence as, or owes enormous
debt to, oral forms
o The circumstances of their creation & reception are, at least ostensibly, performative
and communal , not silent and solitary
• The single-tet oogaph- one work between two covers- is by no means the most common
mode of transmission for medieval texts, & the effort to determine the relationship between
texts in medieval manuscripts, the intentions of the creators of such compilations and their
effect upon readers, is a major area of study
• One of the most obvious divisions in English literary history lies between the literature of the
Anglo-Saxons – the English before the Norman Conquest (1066)- and that of the English
afterward
o Within these 2 periods further divisions can be made: early OE lit, as far as we can
reconstruct it, differs markedly from lit after the reign of Alfred the Great (d.899), who
sought to begin a program of vernacular literacy and bestowed a certain royal authority
on English as a quasi-official written language
• Norman French was the language of courtly culture in England
• Eal Middle Eglish – roughly from the century after the Conquest until the beginning of the
14th cen.- English began to take its place alongside the culturally more prestigious Latin (Church)
& French (court, law, & admin)
o Writers chose English for aristocratic readers
• 15th cen.: gradual re-deelopet of a itte stadad Eglish & a outpouig of litea
works (devotional) that fostered and responded to rising literacy rates
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o Printing introduced in the later 15th cen.
• 16th cen.: wider spread of printing in England, the standard became more fixed, changing into
Modern English
History, Narrative, Culture
• Histo is ot sipl hat happeed i the past, ut the stories we tell about what happened
in the past
• Eets, ojets, ad stoies do’t speak fo theseles; the hae to e aaged ad eplaied,
looked at and looked into, and gradually placed in a context constructed from our
interpretations of other objects, events, and stories
• Our study of the past says as much about us as it does the past we try to study & texts help us
understand their context as much as contexts help us understand texts
• Poet Ahiald MaLeish isisted that a poe should ot ea/ But e.
• Objects and events – the Sutton Hoo ship burial, Durham Cathedral, the Magna Carta, the Black
Death of the 14th cen.- positively hum with meaning and intention and human consequences;
they are inextricably caught in the web of signification and interpretation
• Objects go beyond their use and basic definition to include contextual implications and function
within society
• CHI-RHO page of the early 8th cen. Lindisfarne Gospels intertwines many cultures (English, Irish,
& Latin) as well as being a beautiful gospel work
o Reciprocal relationship of text and context
• For readers of early lit, assumptions are solid, opaque, at time impenetrable; they need to be
understood as they are written and contextually
• We refer to the millennium following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th cen. CE as 1
peiod, the Middle Ages. At the ed of this falls the Reaissae eithth – 16th cen.)
which marks the final flowering of medieval culture
o Where historians in the Renaissance saw difference and divisions, historians of the
period tend to see continuity and development
Before the Norman Conquest
Celts in Medieval Britain and Ireland
• Laguages likel eloged to of goups of Isula Celti laguages i.e., those spoke o
the islad, distiguishig the fo othe Celti laguages spoke duig the fist illeiu
BCE throughout much of continental Europe).
• Celtic languages like OE & Latin belong to the Indo-European family languages but have non-
Indo-European elements (Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and Brits)
Roman Britain
• Romans invaded & conquered much of Britain in the 1st cen. CE & over next 4 cen. Were
successful in establishing admin structures
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Readings for quiz 1: medieval literature in england included works written in english, latin, anglo-norman french, Middle welsh, and old irish (cid:862)b(cid:396)itish(cid:863) a(cid:374)d (cid:862)e(cid:374)glish(cid:863) a(cid:396)e (cid:374)ot i(cid:374)te(cid:396)(cid:272)ha(cid:374)gea(cid:271)le: entwined with political realities and national identities, (cid:862)b(cid:396)itish(cid:863) de(cid:396)i(cid:448)es f(cid:396)o(cid:373) the ro(cid:373)a(cid:374) (cid:374)a(cid:373)e fo(cid:396) ea(cid:396)l(cid:455) celti(cid:272) settle(cid:396)s i(cid:374) (cid:449)hat (cid:449)e (cid:374)o(cid:449) (cid:272)all the. British isles: (cid:862)e(cid:374)glish(cid:863) (cid:396)efe(cid:396)s to the ge(cid:396)(cid:373)a(cid:374)i(cid:272) i(cid:374)(cid:448)ade(cid:396)s a(cid:374)d settle(cid:396)s (cid:449)ho (cid:271)ega(cid:374) a(cid:396)(cid:396)i(cid:448)i(cid:374)g i(cid:374) the (cid:1009)th century, pushed the celtic inhabitants to the west and the north (now wales & 14th cen. - english began to take its place alongside the culturally more prestigious latin (church) & french (court, law, & admin: writers chose english for aristocratic readers, 15th cen. : gradual re-de(cid:448)elop(cid:373)e(cid:374)t of a (cid:449)(cid:396)itte(cid:374) (cid:862)sta(cid:374)da(cid:396)d(cid:863) e(cid:374)glish & a(cid:374) outpou(cid:396)i(cid:374)g of lite(cid:396)a(cid:396)(cid:455) works (devotional) that fostered and responded to rising literacy rates: printing introduced in the later 15th cen, 16th cen. : wider spread of printing in england, the standard became more fixed, changing into.
