The English Literature of the 14th Century14世纪英国文学.pptVIP

The Age of Chaucer (the 14th Century ) Historical Background 1. The Hundred Years’ War 2. The Peasant Uprising of 1381 3. The Black Death The Five Important Figures of the 14th Century Geoffrey Chaucer: poet William Langland: poet John Wyclif: the first translator of the Bible John Gower: the scholar and literary man John Mandeville: the traveler William Langland(1332----1386) the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman Piers Plowman 农夫皮尔斯 Piers Plowman is an allegorical moral and social satire, written as a vision of the common medieval type. The poem exists in three versions: the A Version (Prologe and the Vision of Piers Plowman) the B Version (revision of A and addition of the Do Well, Do Better, Do Best section the C Version, a revision of the whole. Allegory: A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Geoffrey Chaucer( 1340—1400) Father of English poetry Forerunner of English realism Forerunner of English humanism The French Period The Italian Period The English Period 　　　　　 The French Period The Romaunt of the Rose The Book of the Duchess The Italian Period The House of Fame The Assembly of Fouls Troilus and Cryseyde The Legend of Good Women 　　 The English Period The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales  It is a collection 24 stories .The tales are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (1118– 1170) was Archbishop of Canterbury. He is