Cards

Question 1

Anglo-Saxon (Old English) Literature

Answer 1

(5th to 11th Century)

Question 2

Germanic tribes invasion –

Answer 2

449 AD

Question 3

the Saxons, the Angles, the Jutes:

Answer 3

tribal/pagan/warrior/heroic society: chieftain of the clan (king), retainers, churls, slaves

Question 4

the Saxons, the Angles, the Jutes:

Answer 4

tribal/pagan/warrior/heroic society: chieftain of the clan (king), retainers, churls, slaves

Question 5

ANGLO SAX:heroic code:

Answer 5

kinship, loyalty, courage, strength, honesty, pride, glory earned in battle, vengeance,
strong belief

Question 6

ANGLO SAX: Literature:

Answer 6

oral tradition – alliterative poetry transmitted by scops (bards)- language Old English
(literary standard West Saxon dialect)

Question 7

Example of alliterative verse in Old English:

Answer 7

divided into two halves by caesura, 4 stresses in each

line

Question 8

frequently used poetic techniques:

Answer 8

metonymy- crown/king; iron/sword;
synecdoche- hand/worker; keel/ship
kenning – life-house/body; sea-farer/sailor; whale-road/sea
variation - God, He, Holy Creator, mankind’s Guardian, Lord…

Question 9

Anglo-Saxon poetry 30,000 lines in four manuscripts:

Answer 9

4 groups
1. heroic poetry: Beowulf (1st half of the 8th century), 3,182 lines: main characters: Beowulf- nephew
of King Hygelac of the Geats; King Hrothgar of Denmark, monster Grendel
2. religious poetry: authors: Caedmon, Cynewulf,
poems: Caedmon’s Hymn (late 7th century),
The Dream of the Rood (9th century)
3. lyric-elegies: The Wanderer, The Seafarer
4. later heroic poetry: The Battle of Brunanburgh (937), The Battle of Maldon (991)

Question 10

OLD ENGLISH PROSE

Answer 10

Historia Ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) –written by Venerable Bede in 731
De Consolatio Philosophiae (The Consolation of Philosophy, 524 AD) -by Boethius
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Question 11

Medieval (Middle English) Literature

Answer 11

early 12th century – late 15th century)

the Norman conquest – 1066

Question 12

feudal society:

Answer 12

king-vassals (lords)-serfs
Chivalric code: knightly virtues (courage, loyalty,) +
Christian virtues (faith, mercy, hope, humbleness) + courtly love values (towards noble ladies: gentle,

Question 13

Medieval Literature: written -

Answer 13

French cultural domination: alliterative verse replaced by rhymed verse:
octosyllabic/decasyllabic couplet
alliterative verse revival in the 14th century
Middle English: combination of Norman French, Old English dialects and Latin; East Middland
dialect
˘

Question 14

Medieval Literature: written -

Answer 14

French cultural domination: alliterative verse replaced by rhymed verse:
octosyllabic/decasyllabic couplet
alliterative verse revival in the 14th century
Middle English: combination of Norman French, Old English dialects and Latin; East Middland
dialect
˘

Question 15

Medieval

Answer 15

Years: (early 12th century – late 15th century
Society: feudal society: king-vassals (lords)-serfs
Language: Middle English: combination of Norman French, Old English dialects and Latin; East Middland dialect
Chivalric code: knightly virtues (courage nobility, , honour) + Christian virtues (faith,humbleness) + courtly love values (towards noble ladies: gentle, courteous)
The Canterbury Tales example of decasyllabic couplet in iambic pentameter (rhymed, unaccented/accented)
Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1334-1400)
life: son of wine merchant, page to Edward III, controller of customs on wool
events: the 100 y. War – 1337-1453
The Black Death – 1348
The Peasants’ Rising - 1381
dominant genre - poetry:

Question 16

Renaissance (Tudor&Elizabethan) Poet

Answer 16

1400-1603-
Society: RENAISSANCE AND HUMANISM
individualism/ free studying of antique sources
knowledge : rational +empirical /secularisation of life
Elizabethan poets
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
cycle of 154 sonnets:
1-7 celebrates the beauty of a young man
18-126 - dominant motif – Time vs. Beauty and Youth
127-154 Dark Lady - as an object of desire
Shakespearean/English sonnet 7 rhymes: abab cdcd efef gg
William Shakespeare: structure of sonnets - 3 quatrains -set a situation
a couplet - brings a solution

Question 17

Renaissance (Elizabethan) Drama

Answer 17

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
-born in Stratford -upon -Avon
-by 1592 -in London – member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men -later the King’s Men
37 plays, the first Folio of his plays appeared in 1623
-logical grouping: romantic comedies, history plays, tragedies, tragicomedies, romances
Hamlet: tradegy
Cruel to be kind
Tough love, being harsh for their benefit
Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 4
The clothes make the man
People are judged by the way they dress
Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3
In my heart of hearts
In my most inner, true thoughts and feelings
Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 2
Own flesh and blood
Part of my family
Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5
There’s the rub

Question 18

17th century Literature

Answer 18

I. Metaphysical & Cavalier Poetry
Period: 1603 – 1660
METAPHYSICAL POETRY
Characteristic features: philosophical problems, intellectual images, metaphysical topics (death, God, soul, salvation, love), imagery – from various fields of knowledge, form–argument, poetic technique: metaphysical conceit
John Milton (1608-74)
1. 1608-1638
prose work: Defence of English People
sonnets: the most famous one When I consider How My Light Is Spent
3. 1660-1674- 3 major poems
Paradise Lost (1667)
Paradise Regained (1671)
Samson Agonistes (1671)
three types of literary writing co-existed:
1. Puritan tradition:
2. the literature of Courtly Wits:
3. the 1st Stage of Neoclassicism

Question 19

18th century Literature – NEOCLASSICISM

Answer 19

Neoclassicism -revival of ancient Greek/Roman culture (Homer/Ovid, Virgil,Horace)
1. DEISM: belief in a single creator based on reason
2. JOHN LOCKE’S IDEAS: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
a) people are naturally good
b) people can improve themselves (the importance of experience/education)
c) human knowledge is limite
Masterpiece:
Gulliver’s Travels (1726):
Book I: Voyage to Lilliput
Book II: Voyage to Brobdingnag
Book III: Voyage to Laputa
Book IV: Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

Question 20

18TH CENTURY LITERATURE ROMANTICISM

Answer 20

1. PREROMANTIC POETRY -poetry of the countryside
   -movement away from pastoral images (cf. Pope’s Pastorals) to more realistic images of landscape and farmer’s lives
   George Crabbe - ‘The Village’ (1783) - tries to document the real life of the poor during the time of the Agrarian revolution
   Yes, thus the Muses sing of happy swains,
   Because the Muses never knew their pains.
   They boast their peasants’ pipes, but peasants now
   Resign their pipes and plod behind the plough;
   And few amid the rural tribe have time
   To number syllables and play with rhyme;

Question 21

18TH CENTURY NOVEL

Answer 21

roman” - from medieval romance (eg. Arthurian romances): a long tale in verse or prose
characters: flat, idealised
setting: in the past/remote/exotic places,
plot: well developed, emphasis on causality, includes unrealistic/fantastic elements,
2. “novel” - from Italian novella (a little new thing) – a short tale in prose (Boccaccio’s Decameron)
JANE AUSTEN 1775-1817-
major follower of Samuel Richardson:
- focuses on landed gentry, English country society, social aspects of human life, social microcosm
- writes in Neoclassical tradition, rejects sentimentalism, criticises the Gothic novel
Works: chronology obscured, novels revised for publication
Pride and Prejudice-1813
Sense and Sensibility- 1811
Emma-1816
Northanger Abbey-1818-published posthumously
Persuation-1818
Mansfield Park-1814
Major theme-development of heroines who are educated by life, male-female relationships: marriage as partnership
Narrative realism - Innovations in literary techniques: replacement of long descriptive passages by dialogues combined with simple descriptive sentences: e.g.