Lesson 1 11/02/19

Literature 1700 > new form of narrative is invented: the NOVEL = relatively long work of narrative fiction,
normally written in prose form, and which is typically published as a book; in Italian it is said romanzo
borghese when you’re talking about a novel as the idea of the middle class is incorporated in the term.
There are also form idealisation but not fantastic elements. Was first invented in English literature with
Robinson Crusoe (1719) before in Europe, it was in the second part of the century that it becomes
European and in 1800 in becomes central (es. Manzoni in Italy)
Romance = unrealistic, not necessarily it contains fantastic elements, when it has to do with knights is
called chivalric romance. Is an important form of narrative as the ancient romances tent to be related to
the chivalric court: battles, duels, knights so war but also love, the two elements are equally important not
subordinated as in epic
The main difference between the novel and the romance is in the way in which they view reality. The novel
renders reality closely and in comprehensive detail. It takes a group of people and set them going about
the business of life. We come to see these people in their real complexity of temperament and motive.
They are in explicable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past. Character is
more important than action and plot, and probably the tragic or comic actions of the narrative will have
the primary purpose of enhancing our knowledge of and feeling for an important character, a group of
characters, or a way of life. The events that occur will usually be plausible, given the circumstances, and if
the novelist includes a violent or sensational occurrence in his plot, he will introduce it only into such
scenes as have been (in the words of Percy Lubbock) "already prepared to vouch for it." Historically, as it
has often been said, the novel has served the interests and aspirations of an insurgent middle class.
By contrast the romance, following distantly the medieval example, feels free to render reality in less
volume and detail. It tends to prefer action to character, and action will be freer in a romance than in a
novel, encountering, as it were, less resistance from reality. (This is not always true, as we see in what
might be called the static romances of Hawthorne, in which the author uses the allegorical and moral,
rather than the dramatic, possibilities of the form.) The romance can flourish without providing much
intricacy of relation. The characters, probably rather two-dimensional types, will not be complexly related
to each other or to society or to the past. Human beings will on the whole be shown in an ideal relation--
that is, they will share emotions only after these have become abstract or symbolic. To be sure, characters
may become profoundly involved in some way, as in Hawthorne or Melville, but it will be a deep and
narrow, an obsessive, involvement. In American romances it will not matter much what class people come
from, and where the novelist would arouse our interest in a character by exploring his origin, the romancer
will probably do so by enveloping it in mystery. Character itself becomes, then, somewhat abstract and
ideal, so much so in some romances that it seems to be merely a function of plot. The plot we may expect
to be highly coloured. Astonishing events may occur, and these are likely to have a symbolic or ideological,
rather than a realistic, plausibility. Being less committed to the immediate rendition of reality than the
novel, the romance will more freely veer toward mythic, allegorical, and symbolistic forms.

Sentimental romance = 1600, no war but only love, protagonist are noble people involved in love material
Epic = element of war but not very much elements of love which can be eliminated, it is linked to
community: the hero kills the enemy and the community is safe (ex. Iliade), it is usually in verse and it
celebrated the greatness of community
Realism = not reality but it represents reality, it could be involved also in the description of fantastic
elements; also to represent a world as similar as possible to the world in which the reader lives
Es. Robinson Crusoe > something verisimilar
Middle Age > begins in 1000 and it ends in 1400, it is identified with the discovery of America by Columbus,
the death of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence and the Renaissance begins
1485 > historians prefer considering this date for England to indicate the beginning of Renaissance, the end
of the War of the Roses and recovery of peace after the destructive civil war, with the figure of Henry II,
during the war we have very little literature progress
History part
1066 > Norman conquest which brought a French influence on the English language, leading to the passage
from Old English to Middle English; ME is the language used by the first important writers, such as Chaucer
so the Middle Ages is divided into two parts with the Norman invasions

Differences in languages with a gradual process of transformation

First phase > Latin, Celtic language, Old English
Second phase > French, Middle English (ex. Chaucer)
England before the Romains conquest was Celtic
Celtic languages > have nothing to do with modern English, the Gaelic is the original Celtic language (still
spoken by different Irish people)

The Anglo Saxons were Germanic populations, different tribes coming from northern Europe; their
invasions was not a unitarian one: they arrived in different groups, in an unorganised way, from the V
century. King Arthur fought along with the romans in the attempt of rejecting the anglo saxons invasions.
Their attempt was vain, and by the VIII century England was anglo Saxon; Beowulf was written in anglo
saxon as well. (recommended: Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf).

The last anglo Saxon king is Edward the Confessor (very religious man, said to be able to cure with the
touch of his hands - hence called the confessor). Edward’s crowning is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. His
successor, king Harold, had barely the time to be crowned, since he soon had to face the roman invasion
and got killed in the battle of Hastings; he didn’t had the time to reign, that’s why Edward is considered to
be the last anglo Saxon king. Edward’s and Harold's crownings are depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, which
also portrays the Norman ships sailing towards England and the death of king Harold.

Bayeux tapestry > it is kept in a museum in France, it contains all the story of the Norman conquest, it is a
sort of modern comic book, divided in scenes
Normans > Germanic population which conquered Northern part of France, by staying in France they
acquired French traits, Latin changes their language, their language then was spoken by the nobility
The society > the late middle age society was strongly hierarchical, not only in economic, political and
social terms, but also in ideological terms: there was a king and a court of nobles and most of the power
was in the hands of the king instead the other people were subjects, the economic power was of the
middle class. The aristocracy was a model of life for the whole society in order to promote their way of life
and it reminds the Greek etymology as the govern of the best, they were the best because of the wealth,
power, education, the way they interact with other people  the romance represents the values of the
aristocracy, which became the ideal towards which the other classes tended, it reflects the aristocracy
seen as the best part of society, generally noble people are models. People to know about stories could
listen as poor people could not read as books were expensive before the invention of the press, but thanks
to minstrels they could listen to them
View of the world > in the late medieval world view, everything was interconnected; this view is summed
up by the Great Chain of Being:
 God
 Angels
 King
 Aristocracy
 Middle class
 Lower classes
 Animals
 Plant
 Inanimate things
 Devils
 Satan
To sum up there were:
- Supernatural world > implies the Christian view, divided into god angles and devils and spirits of
Satan in a symmetry  universe
- Human world > hierarchical way: the king, the aristocracy (prince, duke, earl…), middle class
(wealth and power, they manage to obtain political power ex. Medici weren’t of noble origins, they
were rich bourgeois but they became noble; in also contains artisans, small traders …), lower
classes ( can’t support themselves, don’t earn enough money as country labourers, prostitutes…
they live in a state of unhappiness and oppression)
- Physical universe
People believed in the Ptolemaic universe and the hierarchy corresponds to it: it offered a rational,
reassuring idea of the world as created and governed by the action of god. The earth is surrounded by
transparent spheres whose movement was controlled by the planets (the first one was the moon, which
gives the earth the name of “sublunary world”). The planets influenced people as well -> astrology, which
at the time was the same thing as astronomy, in the same way of alchemy and chemistry.

Theory of the four elements: earth, air, water and fire were thought to be the components of everything
that existed in the world. It was the difference in the combination of these four which resulted in the
difference of the overall result.
Each element has specific characteristics, and it is related to one of the four humours:
 Fire: hot and dry; related to the yellow bile (a person who had a prevalence of yellow bile was choleric
in character)
 air: hot and moist; related to the blood (a person who had a prevalence of yellow bile was sanguine in
character)
 Water: cold and moist; related to the phlegm (a person who had a prevalence of yellow bile was
phlegmatic in character)
 Earth: cold and dry; related to the black bile (a person who had a prevalence of yellow bile was
melancholy in character)

There is an association between what is high, both in the chain of being and in the elements, and what is
good (and of what is low and what is
bad)

Homologies were very common in the

medieval world -> god:heavens =
king:earth = father:family
After Elizabeth I became queen of
England, she wrote a sermon which was
supposed to be preached by all priests in which it was told the rebellion to the order of society was a
rebellion against god.

Social hierarchy in Sir Gawain and the green knight:

 Arthur (king)
 Gawain (best of knights)
 Round table
 Aristocracy
 Rest of humankind