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HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY MID TERM TEST ON ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH (No 2) Subject Code EN16 Full name Date of birth Group I Answer the following quest.
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY MID -TERM TEST ON ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH (No 2) Subject Code: EN16 Full name: Date of birth: Group: I Answer the following questions: (50 points) What three languages were spoken in England in the 11th - 13th centuries, and whom were they spoken by? Mention some reasons Three main languages spoken in England in the 11th - 13th centuries: Middle English, Anglo-Norman (or French) and Latin Middle English: In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added This language is called Middle English It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340 – 1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today Anglo-Norman (or French): Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French Anglo-Norman had emerged as a distinct dialect of French after the Norman Conquest in 1066 established a French-speaking aristocracy in English It was spoken in the law courts, schools, and universities and, in due course, in at least some sections of the gentry and the growing bourgeoisie Private and commercial correspondence was carried out in Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French though Anglo-Norman and AngloFrench were eventually eclipsed by modern English, they had been used widely enough to influence English vocabulary permanently Latin: − English was slow to take over as the language of government, law, and bureaucracy, despite the fact that by a law passed in 1362 all legal pleadings had to be in English However, most other types of official documents continued to be written in Latin, such as the manor court roll (MS 66/1) shown on the previous page of this unit It was not until the mid-sixteenth century that English began to appear in manorial records, and even then it was often only used to record presentments spoken in that language at the meeting of the manor court It was a similar situation in the records of the Nottingham Archdeaconry court In depositions written in 1610, the words spoken by ordinary people are written in English, as they said them, but the rest of the document explaining the case is in Latin − Rentals and accounts from landed estates are rare in English before the beginning of the sixteenth century Most title deeds were also written in Latin until the sixteenth century and even later − The Catholic church used Latin in its services, so all liturgical books were written in this language until the Reformation in the sixteenth century The theologian John Wycliffe began to translate the Bible into English in the late fourteenth century, but the Lollard movement with which he was associated was persecuted by the authorities, so late medieval Bibles in English are rare What is a romance, a fabliaux, a bestiaria? In what language were they written? Romance: − In the strictest academic terms, a romance is a narrative genre in literature that involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual story line where the focus is on a quest that involves bravery and strong values, not always a love interest However, modern definitions of romance also include stories that have a relationship issue as the main focus − Types of Romance: Gothic (popular Gothic novels still read by many high school students today are classics such as: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley); historical (The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott); contemporary/Modern (there can be: comedy-romance, tragic-romance, satire-romance, serious romance) − Romance is of course also associated with languages That use was sealed a bit earlier, back when the noun referred to Old French; the term Romance language now refers to a number of languages that developed from Latin, including French, Italian, and Spanish Fabliaux: − Fabliau (the plural form is fabliaux) is a comical fable told in verse They were all the rage in the 12th and 13th centuries Fabliaux were typically told by jongleurs (professional storytellers/public entertainers in France) The short stories were known for their colorful and comical observations on life, sort of like a cynical and harsh Middle Age version of Jerry Seinfeld The stories took comedic shots at things like religion, the sanctity of marriage, and the treatment of women − The fabliau style was simple and straightforward The narratives were always situated in present day and the characters were from the middle or lower classes Fabliaux made fun of everyday life The plots were often centered on women with large sexual appetites and men who were ignorant fools There was typically some sort of scam or practical joke in the narrative and trickery was usually successful − There are about 150 surviving fabliaux from various jongleurs from the over 200 or so years that the form was popular in medieval literature However, one of the most revered fabliaux writers in the history of storytelling was Geoffrey Chaucer Bestiaria − Bestiary, a literary genre in the European Middle Ages consisting of a collection of stories, each based on a description of certain qualities of an animal, plant, or even stone The stories presented Christian allegories for moral and religious instruction and admonition − The numerous manuscripts of medieval bestiaries ultimately are derived from the Greek Physiologus, a text compiled by an unknown author before the middle of the 2nd century AD It consists of stories based on the “facts” of natural science as accepted by someone called Physiologus (Latin: “Naturalist”), about whom nothing further is known, and from the compiler’s own religious ideas − The Physiologus consists of 48 sections, each dealing with one creature, plant, or stone and each linked to a biblical text The popularity of the Physiologus, which circulated in the early Middle Ages only less widely than the Bible, is clear from the existence of many early translations It was translated into Latin (first in the 4th or 5th century), Ethiopian, Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, and Armenian Early translations from Greek also were made into Georgian and into Slavic languages − Translations were made from Latin into Anglo-Saxon before 1000 In the 11th century, an otherwise unknown Thetbaldus made a metrical Latin version of 13 sections of the Physiologus This was translated, with alterations, in the only surviving Middle English Bestiary, dating from the 13th century It, and other lost Middle English and Anglo-Norman versions, influenced the development of the beast fable Early translations into Flemish and German influenced the satiric beast epic Bestiaries were popular in France and the Low Countries in the 13th century, and a 14th-century French Bestiaire d’amour applied the allegory to love An Italian translation of the Physiologus, known as the Bestiario Toscano, was made in the 13th century II Comments (50 points) Write what you know about the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer - The founder of English realism Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the greatest poets of England He is known to be the father of English poetry This does not mean that there was no poetry, or poets in England before him But before Chaucer, there was no National language There were merely a number of regional languages Chaucer used one of these languages, East Midland By the force of his genius, he raised it to the level of the national language of England He was, therefore, both the father of English poetry and the father of the English language He is the first national poet of England Geoffrey Chaucer was the greatest writer of the 14th century He was born around 1343 in London and died October 25, 1400, in London, England, and was the first to be buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner His father and grandfather were both London wine merchants and before that, for several generations, the family had been merchants in Ipswich Although the Chaucers were not of noble birth, they were extremely well-to-do The young Chaucer began his career by becoming a page to Elizabeth de Burgh, fourth Countess of Ulster In 1359, Chaucer traveled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the English army in the Hundred Years' War After his tour of duty, Chaucer traveled in France, Spain, and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and perhaps as a religious pilgrim In 1367, Chaucer became a valet to the royal family, a position which allowed him to travel with the king performing a variety of odd jobs During this time, Chaucer began to write poetry in French, experimenting with various forms He was sent to France a number of times on official court business and may have also traveled in Italy His relationship with John of Gaunt was by this time a sincere friendship John's wife Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, died in September 1368 CE, and he fell into a period of deep grief mourning her loss Chaucer wrote his first major work, The Book of the Duchess, in her honor and as a means of consoling his friend Chaucer's first major work, The Book of the Duchess, was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster, but reflects some of the signature techniques that Chaucer would deploy more deftly in his later works It would not be long, however, before Chaucer would produce one of his most acclaimed masterpieces, Troilus and Criseyde Like many other works of his early period (sometimes called his French and Italian period) Troilus and Criseyde borrows its poetic structure from contemporary French and Italian poets and its subject matter from classical sources In 1374, Chaucer became Comptroller of the Customs for the port of London for Richard II While working as comptroller Chaucer moved to Kent and became a Member of Parliament in 1386, later assuming the title of the clerk of the king's works, a sort of foreman organizing most of the king's building projects In this capacity, he oversaw repairs upon Westminster Palace and St George's Chapel He may have begun The Canterbury Tales while still in London, but more likely it was after he had left his position at the customs house and moved to Kent In the General Prologue of the poem, in which he introduces his characters, Chaucer-as-narrator relates how the pilgrims, setting out from the Tabard Inn at Southwark for Becket's shrine at Canterbury, will each tell two stories on the way and two coming back; the one whose story is judged best wins a free meal at the Tabard upon their return The completed work would then have been comprised of 120 tales, but Chaucer only wrote 24, which is why the piece is considered unfinished The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's masterpiece, written at the height of his poetic skill The work is by turns satiric, tragic, ribald, and comic, varying from tale to tale From 1386 CE on, Chaucer held a number of important and highly-paid positions such as Justice of the Peace, a member of Parliament, Clerk of the King's Works, and Deputy Forester of the Royal Forest He was also a member of the Kent Peace Commission and, as always, in service to the crown on various matters which are not specified in the records Chaucer was still at work on The Canterbury Tales when he moved back to London in the 1390's CE He rented a home near Westminster Abbey, where he died in October of 1400 CE He was buried in the abbey because he was a member of the parish, but his grave would mark the first of the famous Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey where many great writers and poets have been buried or memorialized since The Canterbury Tales was first published by William Caxton in c 1476 CE in London, and the work became a bestseller Even in Chaucer's lifetime, though, scribes had been copying and sharing his works so the claim that he only became famous as a writer after his death is untenable By c 1500 CE, Chaucer's reading audience had grown wider and he was hailed by critics for his poetic skill and vision In 1556 CE, a marble monument to him was erected on his gravesite by the local poet Nicholas Brigham citing Chaucer as the “bard who struck the noblest strains” in poetry and his reputation has only grown in the centuries since ... include stories that have a relationship issue as the main focus − Types of Romance: Gothic (popular Gothic novels still read by many high school students today are classics such as: Jane Eyre... later − The Catholic church used Latin in its services, so all liturgical books were written in this language until the Reformation in the sixteenth century The theologian John Wycliffe began... continued to be written in Latin, such as the manor court roll (MS 66/1) shown on the previous page of this unit It was not until the mid-sixteenth century that English began to appear in manorial records,