NBB AN128 K1 History of English Literature 1. DP Lecture 1

(1) From Anglo-Saxon to Renaissance: an Overview of English History and Literature. Contexts for Medieval and Renaissance literature

A concise list of important dates: 800-100 BC: Celts; 55-54 BC: Caesar’s campaign; 43 AD: Roman conquest begins; 410: end of Roman rule; 449: Anglo-Saxon invasion begins; 597: St Augustine landing at Kent; from the end of the 8th century: Viking raids; 871-901: Alfred the Great; 1016: Cnut: King of all England; 1066: Battle of Hastings, Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror

1066: beginning of a new period; feudalism, crusades /first: 1097/, 1169: Norman Conquest of Ireland; 1170: murder of Thomas Becket; 1215: Magna Carta; 1249: University College Oxford; 1289: Peterhouse College Cambridge; 1295: First Complete Parliament; 1337-1453: The Hundred Years’ War; 1455-1485: Wars of the Roses

1485: accession of Henry VII – Tudor Dynasty; 1509-1547: Henry VIII – the Anglican Church; 1558-1603: Elizabeth I – the Golden Age of England; 1588: defeat of the Spanish Armada – England rules the sea

1603-1625: James VI of Scotland; (1625-1649: Charles I; 1642: First Civil War; 1648: Second Civil War; 1649: Charles I tried and executed, England a Republic; 1659: death of Cromwell; 1660: Charles II restored)

Overview of literary periods: 5th century–1066: Anglo-Saxon or Old English period. Beginnings of literacy in Latin and in the vernacular. Oral tradition – alliterative poetry. Coming to be written down by monks: eliminating elements in conflict with Christianity, introducing Christian elements, resulting works combine Christian and pagan/heathen elements. Epic poetry; lyric: elegies. Religious poetry. Prose: translations and chronicles

1066: beginning of Middle English period. Massive changes – new aristocracy, French language and literary models, Anglo-Saxon relegated to low class use, Anglo-Saxon language undergoing change (loss of intricate system of inflections and declensions) => Middle English. Three languages: French – aristocracy, Latin – Church, English – low classes; little literary activity in English

14th century: important developments. Revival of interest in English. Geoffrey Chaucer – English a poetic language; rhyming, metrical poetry. Alliterative Revival in the west – Langland: Piers Plowman, the Gawain-poet

16th century: English Renaissance, belated but of great significance. Lyric poetry, prose, drama. The sonnet and the sonnet sequence – a new kind of lyric poetry, modelled on Italian literature. Drama – the native tradition and the Classical influence. Culmination: Shakespeare. Drama continuing to flourish in the 17th century – Ben Jonson

Contexts for Medieval and Renaissance Literature Middle Ages: 18th century term, often derogatory, implying transition between two periods – Classical and Modern; still often used to suggest primitive and backward conditions. Such approaches ignore the achievements of literature, architecture, philosophy and sciences, and overlook the importance of the classical traditions in the centuries prior to the 14th century

NBB AN128 K1 History of English Literature 1. DP Lecture 1

Renaissance: also problematic – the beginning of the Modern; other opinion: the culmination of the Middle Ages. Difficulty of establishing the starting point: conventionally seen as beginning in the second part of the 14th century; others suggesting the 12th century and even a series of renaissances. Not so much opposition with the Middle Ages but rather development and continuity – important and far-reaching changes in man’s opinion about the universe and man’s position in it from about the 12th century onwards

Humanism: the ideology emerging in the course of the series of renaissances beginning with the 12th century. Basically a European phenomenon; anthropocentric, more worldly and secular than medieval scholasticism. It provides a more dignified view of man – the realisation of the potentials of man, concentrating on the perfection of worldly life rather than on the preparation for an eternal life afterwards; yet not an unconditional glorification of man – the limitations are still kept in mind, yet a definite shift from the corrupt and fallible man of the earlier centuries.