2 Plan: The role of the English Literature in the Development of the world Literature

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Literature of the Late Middle Ages
Features of the development of English literature in the period XI -13th century associated with the conquest of the country by the Normans. Natives of Scandinavia, the Normans settled in the north-west of France long before the invasion of England, adopting the language and culture of this country. In 1066, under the leadership of Duke William, they invaded Britain and at the Battle of Hastings defeated the Anglo-Saxon troops led by King Harold II. Harold was killed and William the Conqueror became King of England.
The Norman Conquest marked the beginning of a new period in history of England. In the conditions of the existing feudal system, it contributed to the spread of French influence on the socio-political and cultural life of the country. The conquered Anglo-Saxons were oppressed by the Norman feudal lords, whom the king generously endowed with land holdings; Normans seized all the highest church positions. The people were in bondage. There was an ongoing struggle between the feudal lords: in an effort to expand their possessions, they were at enmity with each other and opposed the strengthening of royal power.
French became the official language of the country. It was spoken by the ruling elite; it was used in parliament, court, schools, it was spoken by those segments of the population who moved from France. The indigenous population spoke the Anglo-Saxon language, which underwent significant changes after the Norman conquest. Latin was used in church circles. Trilingualism affected the development of literature. There were literary works in Latin, French and Anglo-Saxon. Scientific works, historical chronicles, anti-church satires were written in Latin. Literature in French was represented by chivalrous poetry. In the Anglo-Saxon language, works of folk poetry have been preserved from this period, as well as a number of poems, poems and chivalric novels dating back to the 13th-14th centuries. Only in the XIV century. in connection with the formation of the English nation, English became the main literary language.
Among the monuments of literature (XI-XII centuries) in Latin important place belongs to the works on the history of Britain. These are the "Recent History" (Historia novorum) of the Anglo-Saxon monk Edmer of Canterbury, the "History of the English Kings" (Historia regum Anglorum), written by the librarian of the monastery in Malmesbury, William of Malmesbury, the "History of England" (Historia Anglorum) by Henry of Huntingdon.
Of particular importance for the further development of medieval literature was the "History of the Britons" (Historia Britonum, 1132-1137) by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which contains the earliest processing of the Celtic legends about King Arthur, which later become the property of other European literatures. In the multi-volume History of the Britons, for the first time, the images of King Arthur, the wizard Merlin, the fairy Morgana, Queen Ginevra and brave knights appear, which will occupy such an important place in chivalric poetry in French and English. From here originate the novels of the Arthurian cycle. Here, for the first time, the court of the king of the Britons is depicted as the center of valiant chivalry, embodying the ideals of nobility, and the semi-legendary Arthur is shown as a wise and powerful ruler. Geoffrey of Monmouth made the first literary treatment of the legend of King Lear and his daughters. At the end of the XII century. the work of Geoffrey the Englishman on the rules of versification (Nova poetria) appeared, which is of interest as an early example of a treatise on the foundations of poetic art.
In Latin in the XII-XIII centuries. works of a satirical nature are also created. Among them is the five-volume work of Walter Map "On the amusing conversations of the courtiers (De nugis curialium). As a chaplain at the court of Henry II, Walter Man was well acquainted with the manners and customs of court circles. In the form of anecdotes and funny stories, he told about them in his book, including retellings of folklore works (legends, sagas, songs). Long a source of many narrative plots, Mapa's work was not only entertaining: it contained bold satirical attacks against secular and ecclesiastical circles.
The anti-church satirical literature, samples of which were created among the lower clergy, had a democratic character. Wandering clerics and scholars - vagantes composed free-thinking verses in Latin, ridiculing the Catholic Church, the morals of its ministers, and sang the joys of life, glorifying wine and women. Among the Vagantes, there was an idea of ​​a certain Bishop Golia, a lover of sweet food and drink, who presented himself as the author of these hedonistic and daring songs. Separate works of goliard poetry were a frank parody of cult church songs.
In works of this kind, Latin was gradually replaced by English.
An important place in the literature of England in the period of the XI - XIII centuries. occupy works in French, which was represented by the Norman dialect of Old French. Some of them were imported from France, others were created in England. The largest work of the French folk heroic epic "The Song of Roland" was famous. . Chronicles of poetry were circulated containing descriptions of the genealogies of the Norman dukes. In the XII century. French literature in England experienced a period heyday. It was represented by such writers as Robert Vas, Benoit de Saint-Maure, Robert de Borron, Marie of France. All of them were connected with the court environment and in their works sought to satisfy its needs and tastes.
In the poetic novels "Brut" (Brut) and "The Romance of Ru" (Rorr Wnde Rou) R. Vas told the story of the Normans. In The Romance of R.U., in four parts, he recounted the conquest of Normandy by the Scandinavian Viking Rollo, his subsequent reign, and his successors. Vas strived to be accurate in conveying historical details. He described battles and battles, sang the exploits of the Normans, which ended with the conquest of England. Following Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vas turns to Celtic tales, retelling the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
The work of the poetess of the 12th century is connected with knightly poetry. Mary of France. She drew the plots of her works from Celtic folklore, developing them in the form of poetic short stories. They tell about the love of glorious knights, about fairies and wizards. Marie of France wrote about love experiences sincerely and simply, conveying the beauty and tenderness of human feelings; their depth and naturalness mean much more to her than the conventions of the courtly1 form of their expression. The plot of one of the best poetic works of Marie of France - "Honeysuckle" (Chievrefueille) was the legend of love Tristan and Isolde.
Knightly poetry arose in European countries among the feudal nobility; at the courts of feudal lords. Her homeland was Provence (south of France), which reached already in the XI century. great success in economic and cultural development. Provencal poetry served as a model for other peoples. It was an expression of a new, secular culture that opposed itself to ascetic religious morality. In the knightly environment, certain norms of courtly (refined) behavior have developed, according to which the knight had to be disinterested and honest, noble in relation to the weak and defenseless, bow before the "beautiful lady" and serve her as faithfully as a vassal serves his liege. Provencal poets - troubadours sang the lofty feelings of the knights; their poetry is associated with the cult of serving the lady, with the glorification of her beauty and grace. The ideal image of a knight created by the poets did not correspond to reality: there was a lot of conventional and far-fetched in it. However, the desire to convey the world of intimate experiences and feelings, manifested in the lyrics of the troubadours, was fruitful for the subsequent development of poetry.
The ideals of feudal society were reflected in chivalric romance. In English, the first romances of chivalry appeared in the 13th century. At the end of the XIV century. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the most famous English chivalric novel, was created. The heroes of this poetic work are knights who put their honor and knightly dignity above all else. Such is King Arthur and his entourage, such is the mysterious Green Knight who once appears at Arthur's court. Violation of the word is interpreted as an unlawful and unworthy deviation from the accepted rules of conduct for a knight. The main conflict in the story is Sir Gawain's breach of word and his subsequent deep remorse.
The source of chivalric romances about King Arthur was Celtic legends. The semi-legendary character became the hero of many medieval legends. The image of King Arthur united a large cycle of chivalric novels, transforming and changing in different historical eras. In English, the novels Arthur (Arthur), Arthur and Merlin (Arthur and Merlin), Launcelot of the Lake and others were created in English on the plot of the legends of King Arthur. The legends about his exploits were popular not only in a knightly, but also among the people. There was belief that King Arthur will rise from the tomb and return to the ground.
Associated with the legends of King Arthur and his glorious knights plots of many French and English novels. They tell about how Arthur took possession of the magic sword and conquered many lands with his help, about his marriage to the beautiful Ginevra, about how knights gathered at a round table in a huge banquet hall in his castle of Camelot, about his victories and exploits in battles. The heroes of these novels are also the knights of King Arthur - Sir Lancelot of the Lake, Sir Gawain, Knight Perceval. Along with the knights are the wizard Merlin and the fairy Morgana. Fairy-tale element adds special amusement storytelling. Motives of a religious and mystical nature are also woven into the plots of the novels, connected with the history of the search for the Holy Grail, which can only be seen by those who represent the ideal of moral perfection.
Having something in common with the French chivalric novels in terms of plot, the English novels of the Arthurian cycle have their own characteristics. French novels are characterized by great sophistication; the theme of courtly love occupies the main place in them and is developed with special care. In the English versions, when developing similar plots, the epic and heroic beginnings, characteristic of the legends that served sources of their creation; the feeling of real life with its cruelty, rough morals, with its drama is conveyed to a much greater extent.
In the 60s of the XV century. Thomas Malory (c. 1417 -1471) collected, systematized and processed the novels of Arthurian cycle. He recounted their content in the book Morte d'Arthur (Morte d'Arthur, 1469), which was published in 1485 by the publisher Caxton and immediately became popular. Malory's book is the most significant work of 15th-century English fiction. Freely dealing with sources, shortening lengths, skillfully combining entertaining adventures, bringing much of himself, Malory perfectly conveyed the spirit of the courtly chivalric romances. He gave a fascinating account of the life and exploits of King Arthur and his knights, bringing together in his book the best of both French and English chivalric romances.
The legends and novels of the Arthurian cycle attracted the attention of many writers of subsequent eras. E. Spencer, J. Milton, R. Southey, W. Scott, A. Tennyson, W. Morris and others turned to them, interpreting the plots and images of the works of the Middle Ages in accordance with their views and the requirements of the time.
The 14th century is a period of great changes and shifts in the life of England. At this time, the process of formation of the English nation and its language takes place. In the history of literature, this is the century of W. Langland and J. Chaucer, whose work reflected the most characteristic features of the life and culture of that time. Langland is entirely associated with the culture of the Middle Ages; Chaucer is the last poet of the Middle Ages and the forerunner of the Renaissance in England.
Both poets were contemporaries and witnesses of great social upheavals and disasters in the life of their homeland; especially significant of these were the Hundred Years' War with France (1337-1453), plague epidemics that swept through the country and devastated many of its regions, and the peasant uprising of 1381.
In the XIV century. the system of feudalism began to shake; in England there were signs of new bourgeois social phenomena. Cities developed and their population grew, the spheres of trade influence of England expanded, the appearance of the countryside changed, and serfdom intensified. Discontent resulted in peasant uprisings.
Breaking out in the spring of 1381, they quickly spread throughout the country. Inspired by the accusatory sermons of John Ball, led by the craftsman Wat Tyler, the peasants demanded the abolition of the privileges of the feudal lords, the equalization of all classes and an end to the abuses of the churchmen. Throughout the country, the words that sounded in the sermons of John Ball, nicknamed the "mad priest" were repeated: "When Adam plowed and Eve spun, who was then a nobleman?
Second half of the 14th century passed under the sign of the struggle against the Roman Catholic Church; the demand for church reform was an expression of protest of the inhabitants of cities and villages against feudal orders.
Religious reform ideas were put forward in treatises John Wyclif (1324-1384). The activity of Wycliffe and his followers, the Lollards, was connected with the denunciation of the Roman Catholic Church. Wycliffe opposed a number of religious dogmas, condemned the depravity of the Catholic clergy. He asserted the right of everyone to interpret the Bible for themselves. His translation of the Bible from Latin into English (1382-1384) was widely circulated and was of great importance for the development of the English literary language.
XIV century - an era of intense struggle of various trends in the emerging national literature of England. Turning to the genre of medieval didactic allegory, William Langland in his "Vision of Peter the Plowman" expressed the mood of the masses in the years preceding the peasant uprising of 1381. A response to the same uprising, but from an anti-popular position, was John Gower's poem "The Voice of the Crying" (John Gower-Vox clamantis, 1382). At the very time when J. Chaucer mastered and developed poetic genres and forms new to English literature, in England the interest in chivalric poetry.
English literature was enriched both in ideological and genre terms. Major writers of the 14th century - W. Langland, J. Gower, J. Chaucer, developing traditional medieval plots, saturated them with modern content, created works fanned by the breath of the intense and stormy life of their time. An allegorical poem of a didactic nature and a knightly poem, ballads and madrigals, epistles and odes, treatises and sermons, vision poems and the Canterbury Tales crowning the work of J. Chaucer, which absorbed all the variety of genres of that time - such is the genre diversity of English literature XIV v.
To a greater extent than in previous centuries, connections are found between English literature of the 14th century. with the culture of European countries, especially France and Italy. The approval process was critical national English. If J. Chaucer's contemporary J. Gower was a trilingual poet and created his works in French, Latin and English, then the greatest significance of J. Chaucer's activity was the establishment of a single English literary language, which was based on the London dialect.
The ideological and artistic richness of the best works of English writers of the XIV century. determined their importance for the subsequent development of the national literature of England. W. Langland's poem "The Vision of Peter the Plowman" inspired writers and public figures during the Reformation and during the English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century. Traces of her influence are found in J. Milton's Paradise Lost; the poem by W. Langland has something in common with the novel by J. Bunyan "The Pilgrim's Progress". Great popularity in the XV and XVI centuries. used the work of J. Gower. His poem “Confessions of a Lover” (Confessio amantis, 1390) became a source that many writers turned to in search of plots (W. Shakespeare when creating Pericles, B. Johnson when creating the comedy Volpone). As for the work of J. Chaucer, his role in the development of subsequent English literature is especially great. W. Shakespeare and his contemporaries borrowed stories from the works of J. Chaucer; J. Chaucer was fascinated by the greatest poet of the English Revolution of the 17th century J. Milton, romantic poets J. Byron and J. Keith, at the end of the 19th century W. Morris.
Feudal civil strife delayed the development of English literature in the 15th century for a long time. Literary life during the War of the Scarlet and White Roses (1455-1485) was dominated by theological writings. Relatively high level reached only folk poetry. Folk poetry is one of the most important sources for the development of literature. Motifs, plots and images of folk art entered the literature already in the early period of its existence. English literature also developed on the basis of folk art. It was enriched by the traditions of the heroic epic and folk songs; it sounded the traditions and legends that existed among the people. With the advent of book literature, folk poetry did not stop its existence and has not lost its significance. It reflected the dreams and aspirations of the people, their protest against injustice.
Samples of folk art created in England during the early Middle Ages have survived in a far from complete form, but the monuments of folk poetry of the XIV-XV centuries. presented widely. The 14th and 15th centuries are the heyday of English and Scottish folk poetry. Its most common genres are song and ballad.
Ballad is a story song of dramatic content with choral chorus. Ballads were intended for choral performance, accompanied by accompaniment on musical instruments, dramatic acting and dancing. The ballad arose as a result of collective folk art, it does not reflect the personality of the singer, the question of individual authorship is not raised. According to their plots, ballads are divided into historical, legendary and household. The ballads of the epic belong to the historical nature, dedicated to such events as military clashes between the British and the Scots on the border strip (border), feudal feuds, Anglo-French wars, feats of abuse.
Thus, in the ballad "The Hunting of the Chiviot Hills" (The Hunting of Cheviot tells of the clash between the Scottish Earl of Douglas and the English Lord Percy. Ballads about the legendary Robin Hood. The image of this folk hero reflected the social sympathies of ordinary people in England. Robin Hood is a free peasant, a yeoman, living in a "merry green forest" along with his retinue, consisting of the same outlaws (outlaws) ruined peasants and artisans. Defender and friend of the oppressed, Robin Hood is irreconcilable to the rich feudal lords. He distributes all the loot to defenseless orphans and widows.
Magnificent archer, mocking and courageous, agile and strong, noble and honest, Robin Hood is a thunderstorm feudal lords, the Sheriff of Nottingham, wealthy knights and merchants. He is ready to serve his king, but does not agree to live in his palace, preferring a free life in Sherwood Forest. Here, "to the chirping of the birds of the forest," he was born; Robin was named after the bird. Since then, the "cheerful green forest" has forever become his home. Much attention is paid to the description of this forest and the idyllic life “under a tree in a green forest” in ballads. These paintings reflected the people's dreams of freedom and independence.
Robin Hood is inseparable from his friends - a huge strong man, nicknamed Little John, a reckless merry monk brother Took, his beloved Marianne. Ballads about the exploits of Robin Hood were cycles, "vaults": "The Little Geste of Robin Hood" Hood) and the more recent cycle "Acts of Robin Hood" (A Geste of Robin Hood. These "vaults" were printed during the XV-XVI centuries. They showed a tendency to merge individual ballads into an epic whole work. However, in addition to the "vaults" there were many independent ballads and songs about Robin Hood.