Summary of European Literary History An Introduction Part 2: Middle Ages / Literatuurwetenschap

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This is a cohesive and easy to understand summary for the second part of the course book European Literary History An Introduction required for the EUROLIT 1 course at Utrecht University's Literary studies. This one can be purchased in a bundle together with Part 1 and a glossary on my page.

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Key:
Corresponding glossary
Part II: Middle Ages
Own thought
Direct references
Chapter VII: Introduction
Important words/periods
The time in between 500 and 1500 is known as the Middle Ages, a period in which the genre literary love was
developed and a period in which vernacular literature such as Beowulf began appearing. The period was full of
innovations as well, these relating to their historical and cultural context.
The Early Middle Ages (500-1100 c.a.) cover the in Latin rooted literature of the late antiquity, this often
concerning Christian matters. Three of the four church fathers, Augustine, Jerome and Ambrosius, lived during
the fourth century. The century that is taken as the golden age of Latin Christian culture with a future that is less
developed and a lesser time. The fourth church father, Gregorius, lived in the sixth century. The scientific
research was based on books like the Etymologiae by Isidore of Seville, rather than empirical research. The
answer to everything was that God had intended it to be that way, being omnipotent as described in the Bible.
The High Middle Ages (1200-1400 c.a.) is defined by its shift to the Son rather than the Father as well as love
being the key in the relationship between mankind and God. Story telling in vernacular gets introduced, this
being fictional. Literature is used by the elite to assert dominance through knowledge. Patrons would invite
court clerics to write about courtly love and the new ideas of courtliness.
The Late Middle Ages (1500-1600 c.a.) are marked by the rise of cities and their flourishing cultures, which
created a new audience for writers. Dramas re-emerged and even became a spectacular crowd magnet. All
literature was now written in vernacular. Yet the books were written by hand and to most inaccessible due to the
scarceness of copies. That was until the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz around
1455, which made books a mass-producing product and a commercial business. This period correlates with the
early modern period. The Huns, following the fall of the Roman Empire (476 CE), conquered huge parts of Europe with Atilla at their
command. This led to the Wandering of Nations, tribes – now scattered and fragmented over Europe after the
disappearance of the main power – were on the move to flee from the Huns. German tribes like the Saxons,
Angles and Jutes arrived at the modern-day British shore, annexing Kent, Sussex, Essex etc. and thus bringing
their language that would eventually turn into English. The stories of King Arthur – presumably, a story uniting
the local kings in the battles against the Saxons – as well as Beowulf – a story of a Danish heathen hero that was
orally passed in modern southern Sweden – originate from this time. The latter was eventually written down in
Old English by a Christian scribe who Christianised the tale, by making Beowulf a counterpart to Cain, who was
helped by God. Although written in vernacular, this time was marked by instability of the wavering Roman
power and the mingling of Roman-Germanic culture. The monasteries were considered as the haven and the
centre of the latest, still Roman culture. This shifted to the nobles in the feudal system around 1100 and
eventually to cities in the thirteenth century. In the twelfth century, Vikings were considered a threat. New powers emerged due to the Wandering of Nations, such as the Frankish Empire which is now France. In
the East, the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantium remained a flourishing power until the Ottomans conquered the
area in 1453. Charlemagne (ruled 768-814) had control over most of mainland Europe for decades, moving
around from palace to palace, being an itinerant ruler. He saw the value of communicating by writing in the
lingua franca Latin, thus developing the chancery as the court’s writing centre. As a secular leader, he employed
clergymen as his advisors and swore alliance to the church as well as declaring bishoprics to enforce his
religious and worldly power. This period of reviving language and writing following the Wandering is known as
the Carolingian Renaissance in which the formation of schools and education was also stimulated, the scolae
being a starting point of institutionalisation of knowledge. Charlemagne also became a literary hero, being seen
in the “chansons de geste” with translations coming from all over Europe. In 800, he was crowned as emperor of
the area that would become the Holy Roman Empire after the fall of the Carolingian empire, as a continuation of
the Roman Empire (translatio imperii), the antique languages being carried to Medieval literature as well. Chivalry was a new theme in Medieval literature, referring to secular courtly culture, arising in the High Middle
Ages. The French literature is a huge agent when it comes to the development of said genre and cultural change,
the areas where French was spoken being influenced by these trends, including England after the Norman
Conquest of 1066.
European literary history: an introduction
Middle Ages
Yvonne Marinus (7075464) – Literary History Year 1
Europe was almost fully Christianised after a period of instability following the fall of the Carolingian empire.
The Catholic church brought hierarchical structure to towns, by building parishes, as well as later churches and
cathedrals. The religion claimed to be peaceful, although their violence against the Muslims in the Crusades
revealed another side of the religion. Economic growth took place between the eleventh and twelfth century, due
to new agricultural development and an improving climate. The feudal system created a new – and mostly
highest – elite, who were now, with the stability of crops and the rising temperature, able to spend leisure time
developing new conducts, perhaps inspired by the more sophisticated Muslim World, that were characterised by
their respect toward others, especially women. This was necessary to avoid conflict during court meetings,
where ranks played an important role. Courtliness became more important than strength in this development.
Love especially was influenced by courtliness. Whilst arranged marriages took away the possibility of finding
love, contact between the sexes was one of the attractions of courtly living. The poetry performed by
troubadours shows the sorrow and joy of said contact. Love became the main issue of the cultural image of an
ideal society with an obedient knight being loyal to his lady, which is surprisingly similar to Sappho’s work.
The adulterous love relationships were the main topic on the courtly social agenda. New heroes like Lancelot
and Tristan emerged, portraying the perfect courtly lover and the perfect man to any woman. These heroes
became role models, leading to discussions about love matters and the dilemmas of the characters. Listening to
such a novel became a social activity, engaging the listeners and requiring knowledge on courtly love.
The works written by troubadours discussed the turmoil of a lover’s heart, how love influenced their overall
behaviour. Courtly poets in the northern parts of the French speaking area like Paris and Anglo-Norman Britain,
were often clerics and wrote longer tales in lyric poetry rather than shorter poems, Chrétien de Troyes was one
of these court poets. The modern idea of prose fiction was developed several decades after the twelfth century.
These stories in vernacular found their way to other languages, due to the noblemen and their poets travelling
through Europe, from Scandinavia all the way to Slav and Bohemian courts.
The vernacular was often used, yet the poets were trained in Latin as well, as one of the artes liberales, for
which writing in vernacular was based on rhetorical tradition. The process of writing a speech was also applied
to writing in vernacular, following the model known from the antiquity. Latin culture and Christianity are virtually inseparable, them holding Medieval West Europe together, whilst
orthodox Christianity and the Slavic languages ruled in the East following the Eastern Schism. Christendom
began to spread to the south and east, even to the Muslim empires in Spain, as well as the Holy Land, which was
eventually lost again.
Following the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-Norman king held lands in Normandy and Southern France, as a
vassal of the French king. As the power of the latter increased in the thirteenth century, the firm request to re-
annex the Norman areas led to the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453). This was an economic disaster due to
looting, destroying by mercenary armies and eventually even the Black Death, and eventually led to the victory
of the French, due to for example Joan of Arc. This established a mainland France and an island of Britain. This
war also sparked the usage of the English language. The Black Death ran, in its first epidemic, through Genoa to
Iceland (1347-1351), with several following in the fourteenth and fifteenth century. This disaster did however
lead to well-known literary works.
The Decameron by Boccaccio painted a picture of the attempt of escaping from the plague invested city to the
countryside by young people who told each other stories. The mark of the Black Death made the literature
following to contain a sense of disillusion, similarly in sentiment regarding the Great War. Memento Mori
becomes an important theme.
The Divina Commedia shows Alighieri’s contemporaries what to expect after death, where the writer makes a
journey through the underworld, starting in Hel, then to Purgatory and finally Heaven. The fact that catholic
priests and popes were in the circles of Hel, shows that the corruption of the catholic church was already in the
public eye. As moments existed, such as around 1400, where three popes existed at the same time, thus making
Papal power somewhat doubtful. This led to religious conflict and heretical movements, which were repressed
and answered with moderate reforms. This was also the period where poets began writing about the connection
of men and god, known as mystics. These people used the literary format of courtly love poems to express their
connection that was not led by the church. The translation to vernacular of the Bible led to the people being able
to read the book themselves and eventually the Reformation in 1517.
European literary history: an introduction
Middle Ages
Yvonne Marinus (7075464) – Literary History Year 1
The medieval literary world is marked by an at the same time existing oral vernacular sphere as well as an in
Latin/Old-Slavonic/old languages written sphere. Due to the survival of manuscripts, nowadays that is all that is
left, although oral tradition was maybe even more important. It caused different variants of stories, that were
told simultaneously. Thomas, in Tristan refers to the story as matter/matière and the audience as My Lords,
thus showing the oral nature. Chrétien claims that his story is better, because he has made it into a written
composition rather than just an oral story. In these romances, theory was often included due to the lack of
existing handbooks. The relationship between the patron and the author was often of grave importance,
considering that the author needed the money to afford expensive manuscripts and the patron needed the novel
to show their authority and knowledge about courtly love. The novels written by other contemporary authors
often contained the allegorical figures, jealousy, poverty, sadness and amor, these opposing and helping the
lover in their cause to find their love.
The matière of medieval literature consisted of three main topics. The matter of Rome was the first, heroes like
Aeneas were twisted to be courtly lovers, a creative anachronism to bring over the importance of courtly
romance to the contemporary audience. These texts were of grave importance, as they were used to demonstrate
the building of human civilisation as well. The second being French matters (chansons de geste, describing
deeds of the Franks) and the third being the matter of Britain (stories of King Arthur, his knights and the Grail).
Medieval literature takes many forms, yet there has been an absence of drama. It emerged slowly and quite
differently from the Greek model due to it being unavailable at the time. Performances were at first quite
biblical and eventually became more secular, sophisticated plays about love and its problems. In Dutch this is
known as the abele spelen. The serious plays were then followed by comic relief, in the form of a shorter,
comical play, about shrewd and cheating women and their husbands, often ending in a fight on stage. The plays
were often performed at parties or festivals.
Medieval literature is something to enjoy together, rather than alone due to its oral tradition. Reading a story out
loud was a social event. Chapter VIII: Desiring
Jaufre Rudel is one of the more influential troubadours, who wrote Vida, in which he wrote a short biography as
well as the poems themselves. The poem Lanquan li jorn forms a juxtaposition with its preceding prose on
Rudel himself, declaring his reason for the poem and an ideal life, a vida. The vida was only later added, at first
orally transmitted poems lacked that biographical part and were most likely not even written down on paper.
The spread through paper led to the surge in popularity, with events – as in Occtitania – where all people could
participate no matter their social class. The vida would form somewhat of an explanation by the vague poem,
making the troubadour a poet as well as a narrator to fill in the gaps for the audience.
Due to the lack of information about Rudel or his lover, the reader must take all they can find out of the vida to
somewhat understand the piece of poetry. It was a way to critically read a poem and explore its meaning. The
vida of Rudel explains an undying love for the Countess of Tripoli. It led to Rudel having his defined motif of
ill-defined distant love, him leaving to the Second Crusade (1147) and him dying of illness on the journey to the
Holy Land. Yet his true motifs for going on a Crusade are left to interpretation.
Poetry predates the legend, which were often written in a process difficult to unravel. The legends coming from
certain songs surrounding heroes, often lead to prejudgement of the original text. It leaves to wonder which
original texts are by Rudel, this is often defined by his description of a distant love and the usage of the verb
jauzir, to enjoy, which marks his work as his. Focussing on the narrative rather than the interpretation, the lyric
language of desire is alternated between carnal and spiritual desire, either earthly or transcendent. His leitmotif
being the love from afar. Amor de lonh fit the idea that a person should find their other half, something that is
still a reoccurring idea today. The vida helped perpetuate the poem, biographizing the poet and his lover.
Count of Poitiers was considered the godfather of troubadour love lyric. He had set the standard for vernacular
love poetry as well as the idea of an inaccessible topos, which Rudel then popularized with his distant love. This
distance would not just be geographical, it would be social, cultural and sexual. The love poetry is considered
poetry of desire, that is often not obtained by the poets, thus inspiring the audience to appreciate their own
fulfilled desires, which was a part of the earlier discussed courtliness.
Political, satire and moral songs were also present, although they were not as stylized as the love poetry was.
The first troubadours were wealthy men and women (trobairitz) rather than minstrels. Na Tibors is one of these
European literary history: an introduction
Middle Ages
Yvonne Marinus (7075464) – Literary History Year 1