Questions for Revision:The Anglo- Saxon Period
Q1: What is the major literary form in this period?
Poetry
Q2: What is epic? What is the national epic in this period?
An Epic is a long narrative poem in elevated style prents characters of high relation to a central figure of heroic proportions and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.
Beowulf
Q3: What are the characteristics of Beowulf ?
1、The most striking feature in its poetic form is the u of alliteration- repetition of initial consonant sounds in a line of poem. In alliterative ver, certain accented words in a line begin with the same consonat sound.There are generally 4 accents in a line, three of which
show alliteration ,as can be en from the quotations on P.6-10 in the textbook.
2、"kenning": a kind of figurative language
3、The u of repetition and variation
Q4: What are two highlights in the developments of the Anglo-Saxon literature?
1、the Northumbrian School
2、during the reign of King Alfred
Questions for Revision-- The Middle English Period
Q1: What was the form of literature at the time? What features does it have?
Romance
1、Romance which us narrative ver or pro to sing of knightly adventures or other heroic deeds is a popular literary form in the Middle Ages. The importance of romance its
elf can be en as a means of showing medieval aristocratic men and women in relation to their idealized view of the world.
2、Early feudal age，as it reflects the spirit of chivalry.
3、The English romance mainly deals with three major subjects: Religious, Courtly love, and Arthurian
3、Matter of France: a collection of tales about Chalemagne and his peers headed by Roland and their wars against the Saracens.
4、Matter of Rome: covered everything that had come down from the ancient Romans and from the Greeks Trojan War
5、Matter of Britain: the legendary history of Britain. e.g. King Arthur and His Round-Table Knights, Sir Gawain and the Greenknight
Q2: What is the literary position of Geoferry Chaucer in English Literature?
Father of English poetry
Q3: What about the significance of The Canterbury Tales ?
1. It gives a comprehensive picture of Chaucer's time.
The pilgrims reprent the whole range of 14th century society except the very top and the very bottom. With his own wide experience and clo obrvation of life, his characters are so vivid and particular that there can be no substitution for the very person described.
2. The dramatic structure of the poem has been highly commended by critics. In The Canterbury Tales, stories are cleverly woven together by links between the stories.
Most of the stories are related to the personalities of the tellers.The personality of each character, his private life and habits, his mood and social status are revealed in the prologue and in the story he tells, as well as by his behaviour along the road and his remarks on the way.
3. Chaucer's humour: gentle satire and mild irony
4. Chaucer's contribution to the English language: Chaucer wrote in the London dialect of his day, which he handled dexterously.
He was at one moment rious and another lighthearted and full of fun and sometimes he could be very poetical. He proved that the English language is a beautiful language and can be easily handled to express different moods. In so doing Chaucer greatly incread the prestige of the English language.
Q4: What are Chaucer‘s contributions to English literature?
1. Father of English poetry
2. Chaucer, for the first time in English literature, prented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales.
3. Chaucer develops characterization to a higher artistic level, i.e. characters who are morally and socially typical but exquisitely individual and realistic in detail.
4. Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace the Old English alliterative ver.
5. Chaucer ud for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which is to be called later as the heroic couplet.
6. Chaucer greatly incread the prestige of English as a literary language and extended the range of its poetic vocabulary and meters.
