Types of literary discourse

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

General aspects of Anglo-Saxon literature

combines:- The Germanic tradition of heroic poetry - Christian themes, which are borrowed or adapted - Latin and Greek themes, adapted by - Adaptations of style and conventions can be found working in both ways: - Germanic heroes take over Christian features [Beowulf]

(ii) Purposes: entertainment, morality, history, to entertain (the scop or bard), to praise or console, to preserve important events, personalities, lineages (historical and exemplary, moral)

(iii) Style : - caesura into half lines, alliteration, kennings (fixed metaphors) : sea - riding place of the whale; feather- bird's joy, etc.,

Beowulf 1. Basic information: contains significant pagan elements in descriptions of customs, rites, deities , Christian elements refer mostly to Old Testament [Cain, Fall of Angels, the Deluge], while other [references to Christ, angels, holy relics, cross, etc] are missing

2. Structure [narrative]:divided into two episodes: B. as a young warrior and B as old king,elaborate complex of fact and myth

3. Characterization of Beowulf: Beowulf, the hero, is high-minded, courageous, gentle, and eventually sacrifices himself for his people

MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE [1].

MEDIEVAL ALLEGORY

B. Middle English Literature. Period and general characteristics:

(i) Period(a) of religious record (1066-1250) - efforts to instruct the people(b) of religious and secular literature (1250-1356) - various forms of literature, including French and English romances(c) of the great individual authors - Geoffrey Chaucer(d) Imitative or transitional period (1400-1500) marked by Chaucer's influence

Types of literary discourse

Genres: (i) poetry - fabliau (pl. fabliaux): crude, indecent stories of coarse humour - fables: moralizing poems using animals to express human vices/virtues - caroles/songs (of love and marriage) - romances: poems about love and heroic deeds of arms

(ii) prose:- history, philosophy, political treatises, biographies, religious treatises, mystical writings

(iii) drama:- religious drama mysteries (Biblical stories concerning events and personalities form the Old and New Testaments) miracles (lives of the saints) moralities (fight between goo and evil: vices and virtues) interludes (comical plays)

3. Mediaeval allegory:

(a) Definition: - a rhetorical figure/device belonging to interpretation - links together two different meanings, an abstract meaning is rendered intelligible by another concrete meaning (image) - during the Middle Ages allegory was employed on a large scale

(b) Origins in: (i)The change in the perception of the sacred a change begins during the late Antiquity, which is parallelled by the rise of Christianity as a main religion, in this process, the ancient gods are increasingly perceived as mere personifications and not as divinities: - Ares (Mars) - no longer the God of war but a (literary) representation or personification of war; - Kronos (Saturn) - no longer the titan, is assimilated to Chronos, a personification of time - abstract notions like faith (Fides), harmony (Concordia), mind (Mens), Piety (Pite), Nature (Kinde or Kin) are understood as personifications

(iii) The development of rhetoric rhetoric had a special connection with the interpretation of obscure passages in the Bible there were several interpretations of Scripture: - literal: grammatical- historical meaning - allegorical or typological: prefigurations of New Testament in the Old Testament - tropological (moral); moral interpretations - anagogical (eschatological); interpretations related to salvation and afterlife