Ministry of higher and secondary specialized education of the republic of uzbekistan state university of world languages english language faculty №1 Course paper Theme: Early black poetry Phyllis Wheatley

2.2. Vernacular works and drama.

Vernacular literature contains the majority of the period's literary ideals. The Poetic Edda, Icelandic sagas, or heroic epics, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, and the German Song of Hildebrand are examples of pre-Christian literature from Europe that is based on an oral tradition. Although they were all part of a common Germanic alliterative tradition, they were all initially written down by Christian scribes at times after the historical events they describe, and the paganism they contained was combined with Christian sentiment. Every Germanic tongue repeated the mythology of Icelandic literature, which was evidently derived from a common European source.. However, only the Scandinavian sources provide a cogent description of the events and characters involved. Numerous ballads from other nations also reference an earlier native oral recitation tradition. The romance and the courtly love poem were two of the best-known of the several genres that developed in medieval vernacular literatures; both genres, which were predominantly French in origin, mixed elements from popular oral traditions with those of more academic or polished literature. The romance replaced the heroic epics of feudal civilization, such as The Song of Roland, with a chivalrous tale of knightly heroism, using classical or Arthurian materials in a poetic narrative. Every significant work of early twentieth-century western European literature blended the complicated themes of love, loyalty, and personal integrity with a search for spiritual truth. This combination is known as the romance. The history of the love lyric has been equally diverse. However, it is evident that the idealized woman and wallowing suitor of the poets of southern and northern France were imitated or reinterpreted throughout Europe—in the Sicilian school of Italy, the minnesingers (love poets) of Germany, and in a Latin verse collection, Carmina Burana. The exact origins of courtly love are disputed, as is the influence of a popular love poetry tradition. Religious rituals that took place in churches on significant days in the Christian calendar served as the origin of medieval theater. The theatrical nature of the religious ritual encouraged elaboration, which may have begun in the form of mime and gestures before evolving into dramatic interpolations on specific moments or characters in the religious ceremony. The level of detail grew until theater evolved into a secular activity performed on stages or carts in public places like open streets. The actors or guild craftsmen were employed by communities to perform at regional or spiritual festivals. The mystery, the miracle, and the morality play kinds were developed. The titles and themes of medieval drama remained sacred, but the content of their plays might be amusing, comical, or even filthy as seen by their titles. Everyman, one of the most well-known morality dramas, was translated from Dutch into English. The vast majority of medieval writing was nameless and difficult to date. The best of medieval literature is transitional, as evidenced by the works of some of the greatest authors, including Dante, Chaucer, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. These authors were master commentators on the medieval scene who simultaneously foreshadowed the great themes and forms of Renaissance literature. The historical era in Europe that followed the Middle Ages is known as the Renaissance ("Rebirth"). This political, religious, and philosophical phenomenon was characterized by the emergence of a new spirit of intellectual and artistic inquiry, which was essentially a revival of the spirit of ancient Greece and Rome. In literature, this meant a renewed interest in and analysis of the great classical authors. The discovery and translation of "lost" ancient manuscripts was facilitated by the invention of printing in Europe starting around 1450. The Renaissance saw the highest quality of literature and art ever produced.. The age was characterized by three main traits: first, the new interest in learning, mirrored by the classical scholars known as humanists and important in providing appropriate classical models for the new writers; second, the new form of Christianity, started by the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, which drew men's attention to the individual and his inner experiences and stimulated a response in Catholic countries characterized by the term Counter-Reformation; and third, the rise of the Enlightenment, which was characterized by the. Many other aspects, such as advancements in science and astronomy and the political climate in Italy in the late 15th century, may be added to these. The great Italian Renaissance forerunners Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio were encouraged by the new independence and spirit of inquiry in the city-states of Italy. While Spain at this period produced its greatest novelist, Miguel de Cervantes, France experienced the flowering of the Renaissance through the poetry of the poets who made up the Pléiade and through Michel de Montaigne's contemplative essays. Lus Cames, a Portuguese epic poet, was another individual who distinguished out beyond his contemporaries. Drama flourished in both Spain and Portugal, with Lope de Vega and Gil Vicente serving as its strongest representatives. Shakespeare, England's greatest dramatic and poetic talent, significantly spanned the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. Renaissance scholarship and local tradition combined to give works like Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Webster, and others exceptional energy.. The rise of humanism, which included the attitude of critical inquiry, appreciation for classical learning, intolerance of superstition, and high respect for men as God's most complicated creation, was characterized in the 16th century by the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus. The quantity of outstanding Bible translations into common tongues at this time, notably an early one by Erasmus, contributed to the Protestant Reformation's literary influence by raising the bar for prose composition. Long after John Milton expressed the ethos of Christian humanism, the spirit of the Renaissance persisted. The 17th century was a time of constant upheaval and severe storms, not just in politics and society, but also in literature. The new science and philosophy's ideas needed a receptive context, which the Renaissance had created. Michel de Montaigne's "What do I know?" or, more broadly, the determination of the sources and relationships of knowledge, faith, reason, and authority in religion, metaphysics, ethics, politics, economics, and natural science, was the great question of the century, which confronted serious writers from Donne to Dryden. The renowned scientists and philosophers of the time, including Descartes' Discourse on Method (1637) and Pascal's Pensées (1657–1658), wrote in France; Bacon's Advancement of Learning (1605) and Hobbes' Leviathan (1651), in England. The significance of these books lies in their application of a skeptic, rationalist frame of thought to difficulties in both science and politics and theology as well as in general issues with comprehension and perception.. T.S. Eliot called this fundamental conflict between thought and language "the dissociation of sensibility," which he claimed began to take hold in England after the Civil War and meant that, in contrast to the Elizabethan and Jacobean writers who could "devour any kind of experience," later English poets were unable to think and feel in unison. The significant impact of social and political upheavals during the early and middle decades of the century must also be included in order to paint a realistic picture of the time. The start of the English Civil War (1642–51), which was signaled by a theater shutdown in 1642, and the commencement of a new era with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 seem to represent the logical division of the period's literary history in England into two sections. The Fronde internecine conflict (1648–53) in France also divided the century and came before what is arguably the finest period in French literature—the time of Molière, Racine, Boileau, and La Fontaine.. The Thirty Years' War (1618–48) and the subsequent aspirations by German princes to imitate the centralized power and opulence of Louis XIV's French court at Versailles dominated the first half of the century in Germany. The Netherlands also participated in the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), a war for independence from Spain, throughout the first half of the century. This conflict gave rise to the "Golden Age" of Dutch poetry, which included the works of Henric Spieghel, Daniel Heinsius, and Gerbrand Bredero. In many ways, the civic, political, and religious disputes that dominated the first half of the century also reflected the Counter-Reformation's distinctive response. Literary genres and interests followed the trend of religious struggle. One response to this was the emergence of the Baroque movement in art and literature, which was particularly evident in Italy, Germany, and Spain but also in France and England. The works of Giambattista Marino in Italy, Luis de Góngora in Spain, and Martin Opitz in Germany best exemplify this trend. Baroque literature, once derided by many critics as decadent, is now seen more favorably and understood to refer to a literary genre characterized by ornamentation, allegory, rhetoric, and audacious artifice. Metaphysical poetry was the most notable aspect of English verse in the first half of the century, whereas Baroque literature was the distinctive product of Germany and Italy at this time. This phrase, which was first used by Dryden to refer to John Donne and then enlarged by Dr. Johnson, is today used to refer to a variety of poets who, despite having quite different personal styles, shared certain connections with baroque literature, particularly in the case of Richard Crashaw. The battle between the desire to maintain the Renaissance imitation of the classics and the goals and discoveries of new thinkers in science and philosophy as well as new experimenters with literary forms may have been the most defining of all the controversies in the 17th century. This manifested in France as a conflict between the Ancients and the Moderns, between proponents of local tradition and those who believed that literary style and subject should be based on classical Greek and Latin literature. A similar conflict may be seen in Spain, where there is a tendency toward a more condensed, profound, and epigrammatic style, and another toward adornment, Latinization, and the classics (culteranismo). Through the Moderns in France and conceptismo in Spain, this clash introduced a prose writing style appropriate for the new period of science and adventure. Therefore, Descartes was extensively followed by the Moderns in France.. In England, the Royal Society's efforts to promote a straightforward language and a more direct, unadorned, and natural way of speaking appropriate for logical discourse were similar to the great prose works of John Milton and John Dryden. The predominance of reason had also been a hallmark of specific eras of the preceding age, thus calling the 18th century the Age of Reason is a useful half-truth that will confuse the overall picture. It would be more appropriate to say that reason and passion were the two main forces that shaped the 18th century. The cultivation of the feelings encouraged philanthropy, exaltation of interpersonal relationships, religious fervor, and the worship of sentiment, or sensibility. Respect for reason was demonstrated in the quest of order, symmetry, decorum, and scientific knowledge. In literature, the rational impulse gave rise to satire, debate, wit, and straightforward writing; the other impulse produced the psychological novel and magnificent poetry.
Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Johnson are three authors who continue Dryden's heritage of humor, satire, and argumentation in English literature.