En16 văn học anh mỹ bài 19

Môn học nhằm cung cấp các khái niệm cơ bản về văn học, và các tác phẩm văn học Anh-Mỹ tiêu biểu. Với phương pháp trích giảng, sinh viên vận dụng các kiến thức về lịch sử xã hội Anh-Mỹ đã học vào việc phân tích và cảm nhận tác phẩm. Trong quá trình học sinh viên có cơ hội thể hiện sự hiểu biết của mình về các tác phẩm và tác giả bằng cách tham gia vào các vở kịch, thảo luận, viết bài luận phân tích.

HANOI OPENUNIVERSITY

MID -TERM TEST ON ENGLISH AND AMERICANLITERATURE

FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH (No 2)Subject Code: EN16

Full name: Date of birth: Group:

ĐỀ SỐ 2

I Answer the following questions: (50 points )

1 What three languages were spoken in England in the 11th - 13th centuries, and whom were they spoken by? Mention some reasons

Three main languages were in use in England in the 11th - 13thcenturies: Middle English, Anglo-Norman (or French) and Latin

- Middle English: is a form of the English language that was

spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066 The English languageunderwent distinct variations and developments following the OldEnglish period This stage of the development of the Englishlanguage roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages Theearliest literary document in English in the University ofNottingham’s collections is a fragment from the life of St Bridget,from the South English Legendary, composed in the late thirteenthcentury The scribe uses the Anglo-Saxon letters ‘yogh’ for ‘y’ or ‘g’and thorn for ‘th’ He leaves a wide gap between the first capitalletter of each line and the rest of the word.

- Anglo-Norman: Prior to 1066, Anglo-Saxon was the main

language of royal administration; and, it had already begun to beused in works of literature Even after the Conquest, a few Anglo-Saxon texts continued to be copied in monasteries for at least acentury After 1066, English remained the language spoken by mostof the population of England It was still dominant in the mid-thirteenth century when Robert of Gretham wrote his advice on

moral conduct, the Mirur For Robert the appropriate language forlay education was French, but by the late fourteenth century hisbook had been translated into English.

- Latin: From the thirteenth century, French began to be used

alongside Latin in administration and where the expression orlimitation of royal power were at stake Some knowledge of Latinwas also required, since to be ‘literate’ in the Middle Ages meant tobe able to read Latin, and people learned to read and write first inLatin and then in English and French However, some members ofthe higher nobility, like Simon de Montfort, the 6th Earl of Leicester(1208-1265), were native speakers of French well into the thirteenthcentury.

2 What is a romance, a fabliaux, a bestiaria? In what language were they written?

a Fabliau

- Fabliau, plural fabliaux, a short metrical tale made popular inmedieval France by the jongleurs, or professional storytellers.Fabliaux were characterized by vivid detail and realistic observationand were usually comic, coarse, and often cynical, especially in theirtreatment of women.

- About 150 fabliaux are extant Many of them are based onelementary jokes or puns—such as one called Estula, which caneither be a person’s name or mean “Are you there?” - or on wrysituations, such as one tale in which a man is rescued from drowningbut has his eye put out by the boat hook that saves him Themajority of fabliaux are erotic, and the merriment provoked oftendepends on situations and adventures that are sometimes obscene.Recurring characters include the cuckold and his wife, the lover, andthe naughty priest The theme of guile is often treated, frequently toshow the deceiver deceived.

b Romance

- In the strictest academic terms, a romance is a narrative genrein literature that involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritualstory line where the focus is on a quest that involves bravery andstrong values, not always a love interest However, moderndefinitions of romance also include stories that have a relationshipissue as the focus.

- In the academic sense, an example of a romance is a story inwhich the main character is a hero who must conquer variouschallenges as part of a quest Each challenge could be its own storyand can be taken out of the overall story without harming the plot.

c Bestiaria

- A bestiary (from bestiarum vocabulum) is a compendium ofbeasts Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were madepopular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that describedvarious animals and even rocks The natural history and illustrationof each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson Thisreflected the belief that the world itself was the Word of God andthat every living thing had its own special meaning For example, thepelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its youngto life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus Thusthe bestiary is also a reference to the symbolic language of animalsin Western Christian art and literature.

- Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions andillustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals andwhat in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals.Descriptions of the animals included the physical characteristicsassociated with the creature, although these were oftenphysiologically incorrect, along with the Christian morals that theanimal represented The description was then often accompanied byan artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary.

II Comments (50 points )

Write what you know about the life and works of GeoffreyChaucer - The founder of English realism

Geoffrey Chaucer was the greatest writer of the 14th century.He was born in London in the family of a wine merchant From theage of 18 he was connected with the Court of the King of England.During his life he visited France and Italy several times In Italy hegot with the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio What theywrote was full of new, optimistic ideas and love of life and had agreat influence on his future works, the most important of which wasthe Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer) is the great work ofChaucer's maturity, the product of his final interest in literature.Tuming his attention from his audience at court to a wider readingpublic, he hit upon a masterful scheme for his collection of stories.Something similar is indeed to be found in the Arabian Nights andThe Decameron, but their settings are static while Chaucer's isdynamic.

The Proloque gives the frame of the work It presents thepilgrims and route to Canterbury to visit the shrine of ThomasBecket, in a series of portraits unmatched in medieval poetry.Excluding royalty and nobility on one hand, and the impoverished onthe other, they represent all of English society Yet each portrait,besides being typical, is indiviualized, too

No master artist ever painted his subjects more completely thandoes Chaucer, who by cunning detail has caught in each portrait therevealing facts of their characters The poet introduces a group ofpeople gathered together from all walks of life by their commondesire to make a pilgrimage

The great poet contributed to the formation of the Englishliterary language His works were written in the London dialect whichat the time was becoming the spoken language of the majority of thepeople Chaucer also worked out a new form of versification which

replaced alliteration This was called metrical form It was based onrhythmic arrangement of the accents, of the length of the verse, ofstanzas Geoffrey Chaucer showed life as it was, as great artist andhumanist he gave an equally masterly description of Good and Evil.The great writer believed in man and was optimistically full of hope

for the future.

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