B Medieval Literature / Shakespearean Comedy Flashcards
(15 cards)
two key periods
Old English Literature: 650-1100 (example: Beowulf)
Middle English Literature: 1066 (Norman Conquest) - 1500 (example: The Canterbury Tales)
Beowulf
- author: John Lesslie Hall
- Old English heroic poem
-> germanic epic poem
- Old English heroic poem
- consists of more than 3000 alliterative long lines
- set in scandinavia
- dated between 8th and 11th century
- context of Anglo-Saxon warrior culture
Beowulf
plot
- **Hrothgar, König der Dänen (Scyldings), baut eine prächtige Mead-Hall (Heorot), **um dort mit seinen Gefolgsleuten zu feiern.
- Die Freude wird durch Grendel, ein monsterhaftes Wesen, zerstört, das nachts die Halle angreift und viele Krieger tötet. Zwölf Jahre lang quält er Hrothgar und sein Volk.
- Der junge Held Beowulf, ein Geate und Neffe von König Hygelac, hört von den Gräueltaten und reist mit 14 Gefährten nach Dänemark, um zu helfen.
- In einer nächtlichen Schlacht besiegt Beowulf Grendel mit bloßen Händen, indem er ihm den Arm ausreißt. Grendel flieht und stirbt.
- In der folgenden Nacht greift Grendels Mutter an und tötet einen der Ratgeber Hrothgars. Beowulf verfolgt sie, kämpft unter Wasser mit ihr und tötet sie nach einem harten Kampf.
- Als Held geehrt kehrt Beowulf nach Hause zurück und wird später selbst König der Geaten.
- Nach 50 Jahren wird sein Land von einem feuerspeienden Drachen bedroht. Beowulf kämpft gegen ihn, besiegt ihn, stirbt aber selbst tödlich verwundet.
- Nach seinem Tod wird er mit einem großen Begräbnis geehrt, und das Gedicht endet mit einem Lob auf seine Tapferkeit, Güte und Großmut.
Beowulf
Beowulf character
Beowulf:
- embodiment of warrior culture (ideal warrior)
- more than a usual man (e.g. charming physically)
- super-human strength (moral/physical)
- divine support
- a human being that we should follow as a role model
Beowulf
Grendel character
- he is born evil/God created him evil; cannot change
- embodiment of absolute evil
- link with darkness
- so evil that he cannot be a human being but a monster
- positioned outside of a community, he attacks them
- places himself deliberately in isolation
- self-exclusion from society -> monstrosity
- far away from human society
Beowulf
Beowulf & Grendel
- binary opposition
-> ‘flat’ characters -> uncomlicated and do not chnage throughout the story - both are singulr in their qualities
-> one of them is only evil, the other only good - to some extent they are parallel
Beowulf
instances of warrior culture
Pledge: Pledges his loyalty to the king
Boast: I will kill Grendel
Deed: Him actually killing Grendel
> line 282
Beowulf
narrator & what value does he hold?
Orator
the orator is telling the story to the audience in the mead hall
The Canterbuy Tales
- author: Geoffrey Chaucer
- written 1387-1400 (stopped writing when he died)
-> wanted to write 120, actually wrote 24 - storytelling contest of a group of pilgrims on the way to Canterbury
- use of frame narrative/palpable first-person narrator
Canterbury Tales
setting
- Spring, April
- London
- narrator: Chaucer himself is narrator and he writes himself in the story
- tales mirror the tellers professions and social standing in language use and style
- use of irony and satire
-> (humorous) social criticism
-> formulaic setting: depicting characters realistic, using unrealistic descriptions
Shakespearean Comedy
typical features
- focus on plot rather than character development
-> characters are sometimes given silly names bc they’re not important as individuals - frequent use of charatcer types/flat characters
- use of intensely complicated and interwoven plot strands
- main topis: love (romantic comedy)
- youthful lovers in conflict with the patriarchal system/social establishment
-> usually the father disapproves of daughters marriage (aim: testing social limit) - use of disguise
- often leads to play with gender categories
Shakeaspearean Comedy
Functions of the Last Act
(‘happy ending’)
- removal of obstacles to love
- ‘correct’ allocation of the lovers into couples
- marriage(s)
-> community festival
-> promise of continuity (future generations) –> similar to tragedy
Shakespearean Comedy
Eigenschaften
- often have some serious elements
- most obvious at the end: restoration of order
- important in the Elizabethan world picture
- return to fixed (gender and class) hierarchies
As You Like It (shakespeare)
Ending
- reconciliation of Orlando and Oliver, who repents (brothers)
- Duke Frederick repents and retreats to the forest for ‘a religious life’
- Duke Senior (Duke Frederick’s brother) restored to his former position
- Rosalind’s role in the happy ending
As You Like It
couples at the end
- Rosalind, Orlando
- Celia, Oliver
- Audrey, Touchstone
- Phoebe, Silvius
