BRITISH LITERATURE

&CULTURE COURSE

The Middle Ages & the Renaissance

Lecturer dr. Oana-Alis Zaharia

The ‘Middle’ Ages: 500-1500

 The Medieval Period - between the Fall of the Western Roman

Empire (that marked the end of Classical Antiquity) and the emergence
of the European Renaissance.

 the term “Middle Ages” was coined later (invented) by the 14th century
Italian humanists .

 Media aetas (middle era) — first used by the Italian poet Petrarch
(1304–74)
 Leonardo Bruni (c.1370–1444) – the first historian to use the tripartite
periodization in his History of the Florentine People (1442),
• Petrarch - fascinated with ancient Roman history and scornful of
the period that followed it, including his own times.
• He divided the past into ancient and new—antiquity and recent
times — the transition between them in the 4th century, when the
Roman emperors converted to Christianity.
• what followed -man age of tenebrae (“shadows”), a “sordid middle
time” ;
• “the dark ages” - opposed to the light of the Antiquity.
The humanists – focus on the rebirth — rinascimento — of Classical
(ancient Greek and Roman) ideas and practices that had been
corrupted during the middling period >>> Renaissance, used to describe
their passionate interests in the writings and culture of the Antiquity.

 the ‘Middle Ages’ and the ‘Renaissance’ - historically descriptive

terms. (literary conventions)

 Despite these early assumptions, the Middle Ages are currently

considered “a dynamic period during which the idea of Europe as a
distinct cultural unit emerged”.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Middle-Ages
 During the early Middle Ages, “political, social, economic, and cultural
structures were thoroughly reorganized.”

New forms of political leadership developed as the population of

Europe was gradually Christianized, and monasticism was established as
the ideal form of religious life.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Middle-Ages

 From the 4th to the 15th century- a linear framework of

time derived from the Christian understanding of the Scripture >>>>
Creation, Incarnation, Christ’s Second Coming, and the Last
Judgment.
 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there
are also other events used to mark the end of the period such as:

• The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in

1453
• Christopher Columbus's first voyage to
the Americas in 1492
• The Protestant Reformation in 1517
• The Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
 The Middle Ages was the era of:

• the Crusades

• Gothic art and architecture,

• the papal monarchy,

• the birth of the university (Bologna,

Paris, Oxford)
The Gothic style

- The Gothic style - c.1140 in France—at the abbey of St Denis, at

Chartres cathedral.
- a style which values great height and the sense of loftiness- with
large sections of stained glass windows in walls to let light in.

- Gothic architecture reached for the sky and celebrated the perfection
of God's universe; and all this height and light was meant to inspire
and lift the viewer towards contemplating divine things.
- The Gothic style spread around Europe - Westminster Abbey in
London, and in St Vitus’ Cathedral in Prague etc.
https://www.westminster-abbey.org/
- The Gothic also influenced secular buildings: castles, palaces, and
town halls. http://64.130.23.120/architecture/gothic-cathedrals.htm
MEDIEVALISM

The way we think about Medieval Europe - also influenced by the

availability across the globe of traces of later revivals, appropriations,
and introductions of aspects of the ‘medieval’ into public life.

The aesthetic values of pre-modern Europe were appreciated in a

particularly intense manner in the 19th century (a reaction against
the 18th century Enlightenment whose thinkers emphasized the
importance of reason in guiding human affairs.)

19th century medievalism sought in that remote past the values of

community and of spirituality, guided by religious faith.
Medieval revival - also echoed the desires of those who fostered
national identities and their expression in nation-states.

 In England, the present was seen as linked to an Anglo-Saxon past

through an unbroken tradition of law and nationhood. When the design
for rebuilding the Houses of Parliament was sought through public
competition in 1836, the Gothic vision triumphed, inside and out.
- In the 20th century, an imagined rural Middle Ages of the ‘shire’
inspired the works of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973)— professor of
medieval English literature at Oxford University - The Hobbit, The Lord
of the Rings.
- C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) explored Catholic and medieval themes in
his children’s classics also loved by adults - The Chronicles of Narnia.

CONCLUSIONS:

- the ‘Middle Ages’ - point of reference from which we, moderns,

fashion our identities and conduct our polemics.

- the Middle Ages always with us — in the design of our cities, in the
treasures of our museums, in music, fantasy games, literature, landscape.
CLASS ASSIGNMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK:

1. READ MORE, Online resources

https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Middle-Ages

2. RESEARCH: What is The Bayeux Tapestry ?

3. READING:

Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales, Oxford University Press, 2011 (also available
in electronic format)
1. Introduction
2. The General Prologue
3. The Knight’s Tale
4. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lumKkSk2A3s&list=RDlumKkSk2A3s&index=1 -
Melodious Melancholye, The sweet sounds of medieval England - Les doux sons
de l'Angleterre médiévale.