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• Medieval Literature


  Encompasses 1000 years, from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the beginning of the Florentine renaissance in the late 15th century
• Medieval period


  • No central government, lords went to war to gain or defend land, society based on feudalism where lords rewarded land to vassals or retainers for protection
• Classes of Medieval society

  • Those who pray (Clergy of the Roman Catholic Church)
  • Those who fight (Nobles, Princes and Knights)
  • Those who work (Peasants)
• Serfs


  People who owed obligations to their lords and worked the land in return
• Noble classes


  • Had more wealth and power, Knights abided by a code of chivalry and devoted themselves to honor, piety, and service to God, Minstrels or troubadours sang of courtly love and celebrated romantic love
• Roman Catholic Church


  • Influenced the culture and society of the Medieval Age, Monasteries provided social services and education, Created universities and schools
• Latin


  The language of the Roman Catholic Church that dominated Western and Central Europe, the Church was the only source of information
• Early medieval books


  • Hand copied and illustrated by monks, Language saw further development with lowercase and capital letters introduced
• Types of writing in the Medieval period

  • Religious
  • Secular
  • Women's literature
  • Allegory
• Theological works


  • Dominant forms of literature, Catholic clergies were the intellectuals, Countless hymns survived from this period
• Secular Literature


  Talks about courtly love, a contradictory experience between erotic desire and spiritual attainment
• Women were never accorded full equality with men in Medieval Times
• Allegory


  A figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal
• Examples of Allegory


  • Psychomachia (Battle of Souls) by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius
  • The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• A notable amount of medieval literature is anonymous, names of the authors seem unimportant and important works were never-attributed to any specific person
• 17th Century


  1601 to 1700s, the first half was a period of relaxing Vigor
• English poets in the 17th Century

  • Metaphysical (represented a closely related movement, their poetry sought unusual metaphors)
  • Cavalier (their poetry is light in style and generally secular in subject)
• 18th Century


  Starts the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, literature explored themes of social upheaval, reversals of personal status, political satire, geographical exploration, and comparison between the supposed natural state of man and the supposed civilized state of man
• Three discreet literary eras in the 18th Century

  • The Restoration (1660-1700, dominated by Dryden)
  • The Age of Satire (1700-1745, dominated by Swift and Pope)
  • The Age of Johnson (1745-1790, dominated by Johnson)
• Literature in the 18th Century

  • Formal structure, use of heroic couplets, elaborate metaphors, similes, and lofty diction that reflected education, Classical allusions were present, display of wit, detached and urbane tone, often satiric, emphasis on reason, logical arguments, scientific observation and discovery as well as mathematical principles, concerned with social matters
• Romantic period


  Started from the 18th century until the 19th century, characterized by sentiments and sentimentally, an imaginative or idealistic lack of reality, an artistic, literary and intellectual movement
• Romantic period


  • Partly a revolt against aristocratic, social and political norms of Enlightenment Period, a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature in art and literature, emphasized intuition, imagination and feeling, concentrated on the subjective, the irrational, the spontaneous, and the emotional, imagination provided freedom from traditional forms of art
• Categories of tales in the Romantic period

  • Tales of chivalric adventures where the plot emphasized an individual hero
  • Tales of mysterious, the use of strange and the terrifying
• Lyrical Ballads


  Famous in the Romantic period, entailed the imaginative, the subjectivity freedom of thought, expression and the idealization of nature
• Common themes of Lyrical Ballad

  • Love of Nature (emotions and instinct became more important than reason)
  • Love of the Common Man (the social and economic classes were disparaged or put down)
  • Neo-Classicism (a return to the Classic ideals of: clearness, elegance, symmetry and repose produced by attention to traditional forms)
  • Strange and Faraway places (love of exotic locations around the world and in time and space)
  • The Supernatural (fascination with the supernatural)
  • Nationalism (using of scenes from their country's life, history, folk-tales and legends as a basis for operas, songs, literature and symphonic poems)
  • Heroism (the overcoming of our natural fears and limitations to achieve great things)
• try and repose produced by attention to traditional forms
• Strange and Faraway places


  The love of exotic locations around the world and in time and space
• The Supernatural


  Fascination with the supernatural was a characteristic of the Romantic period
• Nationalism


  Using of scenes from their country's life, history, folk-tales and legends as a basis for operas, songs, literature and symphonic poems
• Heroism


  The overcoming of our natural fears and limitations to achieve great things
• Writers in the Romantic Period


  • Jane Austen
  • Samuel Clemens
  • Samuel Coleridge
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • James Fenimore Cooper
  • Alexandra Dumas-Pere
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Mary Shelley
  • Jules Verne
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley
  • Lord Byron
  • Sir Walter Scott
  • John Keats
• The Romantic period ended with the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1873
• Mature fictional novel arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese
• Introduction of widespread woodblock printing during the Tang Dynasty. Invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng
• Forms of literature in China

  • Poetry (shi, ci and qu)
  • Prose (Neo-classical style)
• Egyptian novelists and poets were among the firsts to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East
• Vernacular poetry is the most popular literary genre among Egyptians. Egyptians were the first culture to develop a book. The Nile had a strong influence on the writing of the ancient Egyptians
• Literary forms in Egypt

  • Secular Literature (short stories)
  • Instructive Literature (Wisdom texts)
  • Poems
  • Biographical and Historical texts
  • Scientific Treaties (Mathematical and Medical texts)
• The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted
• Sanskrit literature begins with the Rig Veda, a collection of sacred hymns