British Literature-2.pptVIP

BYE BYE! * Week to Lecture Two Medieval English Literature Please make a comment on Beowulf. Revision Historical Background The Norman Conquest: It marks the establishment of feudalism in England. (After the conquest, feudal system was established in English society. ) By the end of the 14th century, the Middle English emerged. Historical Background Conditions in the Feudal England Class division became very obvious and class contradictions became very sharp The poor peasants rose up to fight against the ruling class The Norman Conquest: The Influence of the Norman Conquest upon English Language and literature The prevailing form of literature in the feudal England was the Romance The Romance (骑士文学) Romance: a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. Knight --central character of romances It is a special group of people existed in the Middle Age in Europe. Nearly all nobles were knights. However, nobody was born a knight. One nobleman must experience hard training and then the king will give him knighthood. 1.Codes of the Knight（骑士准则）: protect the weak fight for church loyal to your lord, loyal to King respect women of noble birth 2. The theme of loyalty to king and lord is an important common theme of the Romance. So they were composed for the noble class． The essential features of Romance Lacks the resemblance to truth or reality Exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues Contains perilous adventures remote from ordinary life Lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady The knight 3.The great majority of the romances fall into three groups: matters of France : Charlemagne, a very great French emperor. 查理曼大帝 matters of Rome: Alexander the Great, a very great emperor in ancient Greece. 亚历山大大帝 matters of Britain: The Romance of King Arthur and his Round Table knights,亚瑟王和他的圆桌骑士，is comparatively the most important for the history of English literature, e