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 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:

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 - 13th centuries: 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 language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages The earliest literary document in English in the University of Nottingham’s collections is a fragment from the life of St Bridget, from the South English Legendary, composed in the late thirteenth century The scribe uses the Anglo-Saxon letters ‘yogh’ for ‘y’ or ‘g’ and thorn for ‘th’ He leaves a wide gap between the first capital letter 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 be used in works of literature Even after the Conquest, a few Anglo-Saxon texts continued to be copied in monasteries for at least a century After 1066, English remained the language spoken by most

of 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 for lay education was French, but by the late fourteenth century his book had been translated into English

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

alongside Latin in administration and where the expression or limitation of royal power were at stake Some knowledge of Latin was also required, since to be ‘literate’ in the Middle Ages meant to

be able to read Latin, and people learned to read and write first in Latin and then in English and French However, some members of the higher nobility, like Simon de Montfort, the 6th Earl of Leicester (1208-1265), were native speakers of French well into the thirteenth century

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 in medieval France by the jongleurs, or professional storytellers Fabliaux were characterized by vivid detail and realistic observation and were usually comic, coarse, and often cynical, especially in their treatment of women

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

b 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 focus

- In the academic sense, an example of a romance is a story in which the main character is a hero who must conquer various challenges as part of a quest Each challenge could be its own story and can be taken out of the overall story without harming the plot

c Bestiaria

- A bestiary (from bestiarum vocabulum) is a compendium of beasts Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks The natural history and illustration

of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson This reflected the belief that the world itself was the Word of God and that every living thing had its own special meaning For example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young

to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus Thus the bestiary is also a reference to the symbolic language of animals

in Western Christian art and literature

- Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals Descriptions of the animals included the physical characteristics associated with the creature, although these were often physiologically incorrect, along with the Christian morals that the animal represented The description was then often accompanied by

an artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary

II Comments (50 points )

Write what you know about the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer - 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 the age 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 he got with the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio What they wrote was full of new, optimistic ideas and love of life and had a great influence on his future works, the most important of which was the Canterbury Tales

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

The Proloque gives the frame of the work It presents the pilgrims and route to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket, in a series of portraits unmatched in medieval poetry Excluding royalty and nobility on one hand, and the impoverished on the 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 than does Chaucer, who by cunning detail has caught in each portrait the revealing facts of their characters The poet introduces a group of people gathered together from all walks of life by their common desire to make a pilgrimage

The great poet contributed to the formation of the English literary language His works were written in the London dialect which

at the time was becoming the spoken language of the majority of the people Chaucer also worked out a new form of versification which

replaced alliteration This was called metrical form It was based on rhythmic arrangement of the accents, of the length of the verse, of stanzas Geoffrey Chaucer showed life as it was, as great artist and humanist 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.

Một số yêu cầu:

+ Sinh viên nộp file word lên hệ thống

+ Ghi rõ mã đề trong bài làm.

Chú ý:

+ Chế tài xử lý đối với bài phát hiện có sự sao chép ( VD: nếu phát hiện sao chép thì bài làm của sinh viên sẽ không được công nhận và nhận điểm 0….)

+ Giảng viên có thể trao đổi, nhận xét góp ý cho bài làm của sinh viên trên diễn đàn hoặc buổi Vclass (SV tham gia lớp Vclass đầy đủ

để được giải đáp)